Future Land Rover products will stick to just two platforms

04/04/2013 - 18:38 | Land Rover | Shrawan Raja

Land Rover is in the process of updating its lineup, and a report on Car&Driver informs that future products will be streamlined to two platforms.

New Range Rover Launched

At present, the Evoque and the Freelander 2 are based on Ford's EUCD platform. The Defender is based on an age-old platform that was developed in the 1940's. The previous generation Range Rover, developed under the brand's erstwhile owners BMW, shares its underlying structure with the BMW X5, while the new 2013 Range Rover is built on a lightweight D7 platform that is made out of aluminium.

It is learned that Land Rover will only retain the Ford EUCD platform and its in-house D7 platform for underpinning future models. Replacements of the Defender, Freelander and Discovery will sit on variations of these two platforms.

The next generation Freelander that's seen testing often with a chess-board type camouflage in snowy Europe, and the next generation Disovery, which is yet to start real world testing, will be based on the D7. The new Discovery is expected to touch down next year, going further upmarket, while the new Freelander3 will precede it on global markets. The Freelander is the only Land Rover to be assembled in India.

The stretched wheelbase Evoque launching next year will specially cater to the Chinese market, and the new Defender, which has to be designed and engineered to safely carry forward a legacy that spans over seven decades, are the two other products Land Rover fans are awaiting.

Another brand that was once a Ford group company and is heavily reliant on it for components, Volvo cars, has teamed up with parent Geely to develop a C-Platform that will host cars such as the new S40 and V40, and is in the final stages of developing a range of four cylinder engines bearing the 'VEA' badge.

To secure a future completely free of expensive and ageing Ford hardware, Land Rover have the choice of developing new engines and platforms in association with its Chinese JV partner Chery, or with parent company Tata Motors.

[Source - CarAndDriver.com]

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