SPY PICS: Land Rover smooths next Disco

Land Rover's next Discovery will shed its unmistakably boxy shape in favour of a more rounded silhouette if these first spy shots are any guide.

Not due to be publicly revealed until 2017 and unlikely to arrive in Australian showrooms before 2018, the redesigned Discovery 5 is expected to borrow styling cues from the 2014 New York Vision concept, which also inspired the mid-size Discovery Sport.

Expect Land Rover's full-size seven-seat SUV staple to lose none of its legendary off-road capability, however, and to be available for the first time in road-focussed SVX performance form, courtesy of Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicle Operations.

The next Disco will be based on the same lightweight new chassis as the Range Rover and Rangie Sport, meaning -- like them -- it will be stiffer, quicker and more efficient than the model it replaces.

The replacement for the current Discovery 4, which arrived Down Under in 2009 but is a heavily upgraded version of the Disco 3 released a decade ago, could be produced alongside the all-new Defender, which is also due on sale globally by 2018, in a new factory in the Slovak Republic.

JLR announced its intention to build a new 300,000 annual-capacity plant in the Eastern European country in August. Complementing the Tata-owned company's existing facilities in the UK, China, India and Brazil -- which comes online next year and will be its first wholly owned factory outside the UK -- the plant will manufacture a range of aluminium Jaguar Land Rover vehicles from 2018.