Land Rover will be split into three sub-brands in the short term: Discovery, Defender, and Range Rover. Each of them will be focused on a different target audience: while the Discovery models will be family-friendly, the Defenders will be intended for off-road use. The Range Rovers for their part will continue to compete in the luxury segment.
Following this move, the British company will expand its product portfolio with new additions. One of them will be the Defender Sport, an electric off-road sister to the upcoming Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque, with which it will share the new EMA platform. This has been confirmed by Adrian Mardell, CEO of JLR (Jaguar Land Rover).
All three will be produced in Halewood (United Kingdom) and will compete in the C segment (compact), one of the most important in the European market by sales volume. The Defender Sport will arrive in 2027 and, like the standard Defender, it won’t be a pure off-roader with a spar and cross member chassis, instead resorting to a monocoque.
Despite this, we can take it for granted that its off-road performance will be outstanding. Like the rest of the electric cars based on the EMA platform, it will have an 800-volt system (which will allow it to access high-power ultra-fast charges) and batteries supplied by Tata, JLR’s parent company.
Electric Land Rovers will use the EMA and MLA platforms
The English group plans to invest 15,000 million pounds (17,000 million euros to change) over the next five years in electromobility. “Our next-generation midsize SUV platform will be fully electric,” Mardell said a few months ago. “This investment will allow us […] to develop new skills and reaffirm our commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2039. “
All indications are that the EMA platform will also be used in the upcoming Range Rover Velar, while the MLA multi-energy will underpin the electric Defender, Range Rover Sport, and Range Rover. It is not yet clear which of the two will be chosen for Discovery.
