Range Rover

September 24, 2009

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.

Posted by: Permalink | Comments (0); Scott Doggett September 24, 2009, 9:27 AM
Categories:: Auto Shows, Biofuels, Diesel, Fuel Economy, Hybrid, Jaguar, Land Rover, Plug-ins and Electric, Range Rover
Technorati Tags:: Detroit Auto Show

July 30, 2008

Volkswagen Overtakes Ford as No. 3 Automaker Worldwide

Ford Motor Co. started taking large steps away from gas guzzlers and toward a fuel-efficient lineup earlier this month, but the efforts came too late to prevent Volkswagen from overtaking it for the No. 3 spot among automakers by global sales volume.

The change reflects sales figures the two automakers recently provided for the first half of this year. If sales trends hold true through the remainder of this year, the new world order among automotive giants will be Toyota in the No. 1 position, followed by General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford, respectively.

Toyota led GM at the half by about 278,000 vehicles, while VW saw a global sales increase of 7.2 percent to 3.31 million vehicles and Ford watched its sales fall 11 percent to 3.09 million vehicles.

Ford, which has been exceedingly slow to respond to the growing demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, ceded the No. 2 spot to Toyota in 2003.

Exacerbating the situation for Ford is the recent sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors. The two brands no longer contribute to Ford's overall sales tally. But with sales of the British luxury brands under 300,000 vehicles a year, they would not have contributed enough to enable Ford to retain its position among automakers.

Scott Doggett, Contributor