Land Rover is considering another entry into the burgeoning super-luxury SUV market, with design boss Gerry McGovern hinting that an exclusive two-door, SVO-built Range Rover could be on the way.
Reports from motoring.com.au confirm that when asked about the brand’s intentions for the segment, McGovern said: “Watch this space. I can’t say when or what, but there are opportunities. We have proven with Range Rover that there are opportunities to offer derivations of these vehicles, to offer them in a way to bring something new to the market.”
The brand also patented the Range Stormer name earlier this year; the original Range Stormer was a concept revealed at the Detroit motor show in early 2004 as a muscular two-door prelude to the Range Rover Sport, which entered production later that year.
Land Rover has a history of two-door models. It currently sells the two-door Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Evoque Convertible, while the original Range Rover was produced in two-door form. There was also the limited-edition Range Rover CSK, which paid tribute to Charles Spencer King, the car’s original designer.
McGovern alluded to SVO’s involvement in the project, saying: “The good thing with SVO is that it's a self-funding business, so there are opportunities within SVO that don’t necessarily have to be mainstream and small-volume [vehicles] lend themselves beautifully to that. A limited-edition model that pays for itself (and makes JLR profit) is far easier to create a business case for.”
Furthering the exclusivity aspect of the model, McGovern alluded to two-door models’ now relative small number compared with their five-door counterparts as the car industry moves away from less practical and slower-selling two-doors.
A two-door Range Rover would certainly be exclusive - the super-luxury SUV market currently contains no two-door cars, while the recently introduced Lamborghini Urus resembling a coupé the closest, despite having five doors. The Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan both have five doors, while no specifics are yet known about the upcoming Ferrari SUV.
The new model would likely sit atop the Range Rover line-up, higher even than the extended-wheelbase Range Rover SVAutobiography, which tops out the range at £167,850. The exclusivity of the Range Stormer could push the model's price tag to £200,000 or beyond.
Read more:
Lamborghini Urus revealed: full specs of new 641bhp super-SUV
Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV on course to rival Bentley Bentayga in 2018
Why the Bentley Bentayga needs more variants, according to boss Durheimer
Join the debate
Add your comment
Next to come.......
A super luxury Range Rover coupe with the roof chopped off
@citytiger
"Well the original Landrover didnt have backdoor, the Discovery and the Freelander had 3 door variants and the original Range Rover was a "3 Door".. " - correct, and as soon as they made them with back doors, what happend to sales? have you noticed how you only seem to see 4/5 door wranglers now? not just here, but in the US as well. the original discovery was 3 door because they didn't want it to take sales from the range rover, a 4 door version of the original range rover having sufficient demand that they were made by 3rd party companies. on autotrader; toyota rav4 - 104 3door and 1542 5 door, suzuki vitara - 476 5door and 2 3door. freelander 2 - all 5door, freelander1 - 328 5door and 110 3 door. three door suv are pointless and getting in the back would be even worse than with a 3door car, which in itsef is an unrefined malarkey at best.
The point is?
What is the point of large-ish cars with 2 doors? Ok, I am heading fast towards senility but 2 doors are ok on a sportscar with 2 seats; they are arguable on a Golf-sized 'family hatch' but totally unfathomable on a Chelsea Tractor!