Land Rover Says Smallest, Most Fuel-Efficient Range Rover Will Enter Production

Land Rover announced today that a production version of its Range Rover LRX Concept SUV (pictured) will be built, with sales to begin in 2011.

Designed and engineered at Land Rover's Gaydon facility, the new  Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most fuel-efficient vehicle the company has ever produced.

The three-door SUV will be built in Halewood, near Liverpool, England, subject to quality and productivity agreements, and will be sold in more than 100 countries around the world, the company said in a statement.

In an interview with Edmunds.com's Michelle Krebs this morning, Jaguar Land Rover spokesman Stuart Schorr said the LRX will be the first of four new segment offerings from the company, with Jaguar and Land Rover to receive two each.
 
He stressed the four will be premium brands, meaning they won't come cheap. Schorr also said that Jaguar Land Rover is committed to hybrids and electrics, but he refused to provide further details.

The LRX Concept debuted at the Detroit Auto Show last year and featured a 2.0-liter diesel-hybrid powertrain, which when running on biodiesel achieved a claimed fuel economy of 60 miles per gallon.

Jaguar or Land Rover Plant to Close

In a related development, India's Tata Motors Ltd. said today it will close one of the three Jaguar Land Rover assembly plants in England by 2014 in a bid to move its money-losing British unit into profitability.

The company said it will shutter either a factory in Castle Bromwich, which makes Jaguars, or a site in Solihull, which makes Land Rover models. Both plants are in central England.

Tata said a review was under way as to which of the two plants would be closed, with a decision due to be announced in the first half of 2010.

Tata bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co. in 2008 for about $2.3 billion. The two premium brands have been hit hard by the global car market collapse with their unit sales falling by just over half in Tata's last fiscal quarter.

Posted by

Scott Doggett September 24, 2009, 9:27 AM

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