A ‘baby’ Land Rover SUV will soon be offered around the world. John Edwards, global brand director of Land Rover, said that the company’s product planners are reviewing a new smallish SUV to compete head on with the Audi Q3, BMW X1 and Mini Countryman. Land Rover’s Edwards is confident that a sub-compact SUV will succeed in all markets. But warned that he hasn’t yet seen a persuasive proposition for the new model. If it gets approved, the new Land Rover is believed to have a length of about four metres (30cm shorter than the current Evoque).
According to several sources, it will be based on a bespoke platform that’s expected to be shared with Tata, Jaguar Land Rover’s Indian owner, and Chery, its new Chinese partner. According to Indian sources, Tata engineers are the innovators of the work done on a new lineup of diesel and petrol engines with sizes of 1.4 and 1.6 litres, which may be found in the baby SUV. Jaguar could also use the 1.6. The entry models will probably be front-wheel drive. It’s expected that the styling of the baby Land Rover is an advanced development of the theme introduced by the DC100 concept cars. It will take inspiration from the all-new Defender, which has already gotten approval for production.