Jaguar Land Rover to redesign Discovery as family adventure vehicle, avoiding overlap with Defender

Jaguar Land Rover is working to reposition the Discovery brand for the upcoming sixth generation of the SUV so that it has more “unique territory” and is more distinct from the Defender line, according to reports. Car.

After being cannibalized by the Defender product line, sales Fifth generation Discovery is the oldest model in the brand’s lineup, launched in September 2016, before being replaced by the Upgraded version in November 2020.

The Discovery is also the brand’s slowest-selling model, with just 16,750 units sold globally last year, or nearly half the sales achieved by its predecessor. Explore Sports.

This leaves the Discovery line contributing just 4% to Jaguar Land Rover’s total sales, despite the group’s commitment to bringing the model back for the next generation and a greater focus on positioning the Discovery as a “family adventure” vehicle, he wrote. Car.

The Discovery’s sales have been dwarfed by the Defender, which is comparable in refinement and offers a wider range of engines, trim levels and body sizes. According to Discovery and Defender brand director Mark Cameron, the Defender is on track to sell 110,367 units in 2023, many times more than the Discovery did last year.

“If you look at it from a product perspective, [the] Defender came in and took a lot of market share away from Discovery,” Cameron said. Car. The new direction for the next generation Discovery could adopt some MPV design elements and Volkswagen ID Buzz has been cited as a potential reference, according to the website.

Cameron said turning the Discovery brand into its own entity could breathe new life into the brand, as all the JLR brands are currently inadvertently competing with each other due to the same retail footprint.

The next sixth-generation Discovery will likely be underpinned by the group’s MLA platform, which forms the basis for the current fifth-generation Discovery. Range Rover L460 offers both internal combustion and all-electric powertrains.

At the top end of the product spectrum, the next-generation Discovery will feature a new model, one being developed by the group’s SVO division, the unit responsible for Defender Octa and Range Rover SV.

The next-generation Discovery flagship will have its own performance name and will have its own “special interpretation of what the word flagship means” for the Discovery brand, according to SVO director Jamal Hameedi.

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