Preview: Land Rover’s baby SUV

Reports of a new entry-level model for Land Rover positioned below the Freelander have cropped up recently, and these latest renderings show what the new car-based SUV and its targa variant will most likely look like. In an interview with Autocar magazine, Land Rover managing director Matthew Taylor stated "we have to decide what a small Land Rover would be like, how it would be profitable and at what volume. At today’s money, it would be in a price bracket at around the £12,500 mark."

Initial plans were to base the car on Land Rover’s existing L315 Freelander platform that was co-developed with Volvo, but the latest suggestion is that Ford’s new C1 platform is more likely. In order to keep costs down to realistic levels, parts will be shared with both Ford and Volvo who already use the C1 architecture for the Focus and S40 line of cars. The platform offers both front and four-wheel drive configurations and a range of four, five and six-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines.

The project, known internally as ‘The Landie’ is expected to be completed by late 2008 with the debut of the car coinciding with the launch of smaller premium SUV offerings from Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen and Audi. Land Rover in the US has ruled out the addition of a vehicle smaller than the Freelander mainly due to pricing issues. This would be a major blow to the 4x4 company as the US currently accounts for 25% of its sales.