Land Rover will reveal a heavily updated Discovery Sport this summer, intended to regain ground lost to the latest generation of rivals including the Volvo XC60, which outsells it by two to one.
The Discovery Sport is the car maker’s biggest-selling model and crucial to its success, as Jaguar Land Rover tries to reverse the company’s fortunes. Land Rover sales fell 6.9% year on year in 2018 and, earlier this month, 4500 job losses were confirmed at JLR.
The Discovery Sport is one of three models that Land Rover hopes will spark a major turnaround this year. The new Evoque, revealed late last year, goes on sale in April, while deliveries of the facelifted Discovery Sport will start in October. The other key vehicle is the new Defender, to be revealed in autumn, ahead of 2020 sales.
The Discovery Sport, which replaced the Freelander, has until now only received minor updates since going on sale in 2014. This year’s more extensive facelift, by contrast, is expected to see the Discovery Sport through until at least 2023, when an all-new model will be launched.
A new architecture and an overhauled interior will be the biggest changes to the model. Exterior tweaks will be subtle, with an overall enhancement of the current design plus updated headlights and bumpers.
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URGENT New model name needed
Freelander 1 was a unprecedented sales success and Europe's best selling SUV for years. Freelander 2 was more expensive and mature but still popular. Disvovery Sport has failed to shift desired units so JLR need to mount the spare wheel once again on the tailgate and rename this next model Freelander or Freelander 3. Just watch public interest spike again. Also bring prices down a notch. I know it's a premium product but if it's not generating dealership footfall and people aren't buying what's the point? Pitch it right and undercut Volvo XC60 prices. Badge it Freelander - and they will come (back).
I like mine
I would have another, most practical Land Rover of them all, good packaging only genuine family car in the line up, seems to me they are updating everything thing they need to to be competitive. 3cyl plug in hybrid with 50 mile is practically an electric car for most journeys
Reliability
If you explode
How can you post more than one comment??
BOOM!!!