Photo: KDesign AG / Behance
Currently, the 'cheapest' Land Rover money can buy in America is the $48,900 Discovery Sport. Interestingly, it's very close to the $49,900 Range Rover Evoque but comes with the added benefit of having an available seven-seat layout.
Since 2017, it has become the brand's top-selling model, but its introduction in 2014 came at a cost – Land Rover retired the Freelander nameplate from the lineup. That was the first unibody model from the off-road specialist (which appeared when they switched generations to LR2) and had an illustrious career between 1997 and early 2015.
Now, as it turns out, the nameplate wasn't killed off – it was nearly dormant. More precisely, the entry-level SUV is making a sort of comeback as Land Rover has decided to dust off the moniker for an all-new series of models that will have electric powertrains and specific elements for China, where they will also be assembled. To make that corporate revival happen, Land Rover is teaming up once again with their longtime local partner Chery – the brand will receive a Chery-developed platform, and manufacturing will take place at a factory in Changshu.
Well, you would say that Westerners shouldn't care about the Freelander coming back – but this endeavor won't be exclusive to China as the British company under Tata tutelage has plans for global exports. The kick is that Land Rover wants Freelander as yet another sub-brand like Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery that will deal with "mainstream" EVs, meaning these models should be significantly cheaper than the upcoming Range Rover EV, for example.
Naturally, where there's smoke from the rumor mill, there's also a CGI fire from the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. More precisely, Kleber Silva, a Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, has decided to have a CGI go at imagining the return of the Freelander nameplate way ahead of the OEM's timeline. Thinking about this upcoming design project wasn't hard – the pixel master simply selected the Chery Tansuo 06 compact crossover SUV as his digital template.
Also known as the Chery Explore 06 or Jaecoo J7 in overseas export markets, this "elegant" yet robust SUV is said to have "lines that are very reminiscent of the ones used in Land Rover" models, so the author simply retconned most of its front and rear design features to adhere more strictly to JLR styling. Curiously, the Chery CUV is an ICE-powered model, which has a 1.6-liter turbo inline-four and a 1.5-liter plug-in hybrid setup. For the reborn Land Rover Freelander, though, it should feature an all-electric powertrain – so maybe it's not the best start for the base of operations, after all. What do you think?
Now, as it turns out, the nameplate wasn't killed off – it was nearly dormant. More precisely, the entry-level SUV is making a sort of comeback as Land Rover has decided to dust off the moniker for an all-new series of models that will have electric powertrains and specific elements for China, where they will also be assembled. To make that corporate revival happen, Land Rover is teaming up once again with their longtime local partner Chery – the brand will receive a Chery-developed platform, and manufacturing will take place at a factory in Changshu.
Well, you would say that Westerners shouldn't care about the Freelander coming back – but this endeavor won't be exclusive to China as the British company under Tata tutelage has plans for global exports. The kick is that Land Rover wants Freelander as yet another sub-brand like Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery that will deal with "mainstream" EVs, meaning these models should be significantly cheaper than the upcoming Range Rover EV, for example.
Naturally, where there's smoke from the rumor mill, there's also a CGI fire from the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. More precisely, Kleber Silva, a Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, has decided to have a CGI go at imagining the return of the Freelander nameplate way ahead of the OEM's timeline. Thinking about this upcoming design project wasn't hard – the pixel master simply selected the Chery Tansuo 06 compact crossover SUV as his digital template.
Also known as the Chery Explore 06 or Jaecoo J7 in overseas export markets, this "elegant" yet robust SUV is said to have "lines that are very reminiscent of the ones used in Land Rover" models, so the author simply retconned most of its front and rear design features to adhere more strictly to JLR styling. Curiously, the Chery CUV is an ICE-powered model, which has a 1.6-liter turbo inline-four and a 1.5-liter plug-in hybrid setup. For the reborn Land Rover Freelander, though, it should feature an all-electric powertrain – so maybe it's not the best start for the base of operations, after all. What do you think?
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