The design of future Land Rover and Range Rover models will diverge into two different styling directions as part of a dramatic new design strategy already given the green light by the 4×4-maker, writes Julian Rendell.
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Ford-owned Land Rover wants to increase design separate of its two nameplates to give each one a much stronger brand identity, thereby increasing coverage of the expanding SUV market and boosting sales.
The strategy could help Land Rover sales to move over 300,000 units in the next decade, a 50% increase over next year’s forecast of 200,000 sales.
That’s because by widening the coverage of the SUV market, Land Rover will be able to compete better in a larger number of market niches.
The Range Rover range, for example, could be expanded by a three-door Sport model in the mould of the Range Stormer concept.
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By GlobalDataThe Land Rover range could expand with niche models, plus add sales in the North American market with the Defender replacement, which will be engineered to modern crash and emissions standards.
This creative revolution at Land Rover is the work of design director designate Gerry McGovern who takes over from Geoff Upex, scheduled to retire at the end of 2006.
McGovern, formerly studio chief at Land Rover in the mid-90s and the architect of new designs explored by Lincoln in 2000/2003 but killed by Ford’s past money worries, has been working on the new themes for 18 months as Land Rover’s head of advanced design.
Under McGovern’s direction, designers have coined buzz-words for the two new design directions — ‘premium adventure’ for Land Rover and ‘premium sophistication’ for Range Rover.
The vision behind Premium adventure will take Land Rover up-market, its new vehicles evolving a more up-to-date interpretation of go-anywhere, all-terrain.
“Land Rover design will be all about clever body structures and platforms. It won’t be agricultural or utilitarian,” says McGovern, “but clean and contemporary with a level of premium-ness about it.”
Change is coming for the already expensive-looking Range Rover models, too. Although the design changes for ‘premium sophistication’ will be more evolutionary.
“For Range Rover it is all about the ultimate in refined, progressive and powerful design,” says McGovern.
One of the aims with Range Rover is to reduce the visual bulk of the cars, while maintaining a luxury air. Another target is to improve fuel efficiency and reduce the car’s carbon footprint.
To that end the company is very close to adopting new bond/riveted alloy body architecture borrowed from Jaguar.
If the weight savings made by Jaguar are repeated by Land Rover, the future Range Rover, due on sale in 2012, could lose about half a tonne from the current car’s 2.7 tonne kerb weight.
In the meantime designers and engineers are working flat-out to make production a reality. McGovern’s basic vision has been OK’d by Land Rover and Ford high-ups, although the vehicles and their technologies are some years from the green light.
Land Rover, for example, has to find new chassis technology to fit in with McGovern’s exposed ‘safety-cage’ body skeleton that features on the official sketch released by Land Rover. Otherwise traditional body-on-frame construction will have to be adapted to the new design direction.
Range Rover is a bit farther ahead with such key developments, the unit being very close to switching to a new aluminium chassis with technology borrowed from sister-company Jaguar (see below).
The final step in McGovern’s strategy is to tidy up the ‘faces’ of Land Rover and Range Rover’s models, which have become confused with insufficient differences between grille and headlamp designs to easily identify, at-a-glance, the different models.
“We need to bring more clarity to it, and within the new themes give different types of vehicles different faces,” says McGovern.
just-auto’s estimate of new Land Rover model program
- 2006/7: LR2/Freelander global launch rolls-out
- 2007: Revamped Defender on-sale. Not for US mkt
- 2008: Possible new niche variant. Freelander coupe? RR Sport 3-dr?
- 2010: Range Rover facelift. Final tweak to today’s model
- 2010: Discovery 3 facelift.
- 2012: All-new RR. Top-down launch model for ‘Premium Sophistication’ design theme. Highly likely to use alloy body construction. Moves even further up-market.
- 2013: All-new Discovery 4: Top-down launch model for ‘Premium Adventure’.
- 2014: All-new Defender: Platform variant of Discovery 4. Global model, including US
- 2015: Freelander 3.
