Land Rover previewed its Discovery Sport at Sepang’s off road track last week to a crowd of motoring journalists. The Discovery Sport is an all-new vehicle from the British marque, and is expected to replace the Freelander, which may be phased out in future. Land Rover’s plan is to take the ‘Discovery’ nameplate down the same path as its ‘Range Rover’ name plate, creating a sub-brand within the company’s line of products which will better distinguish each vehicle’s intended function.
Like the Freelander 2 it replaces, the Discovery Sport will feature a 2 litre petrol and a 2.2 litre diesel, both turbocharged and based off Ford units. Jaguar Land Rover has been busy designing ‘Ingenium’ engines of their own, which will eventually make their way into this new compact SUV.
While Range Rovers represent the company in the luxury market, the Discovery now stands for more leisure and family-based applications. Unlike the full-sized Discovery, which uses a body-on-frame method, this vehicle is built out of a unibody construction which it shares with the Range Rover Evoque.
Boot space is pretty generous with the last row of seats folded down, but with them up, you get enough room to carry 7 people making it a very practical car for larger families. The new Discovery Sport will be put on sale in Malaysia by August, but Jaguar Land Rover Malaysia have yet to issue an official price range.
