Land Rover has revealed the first teaser picture of its new Discovery.
The fifth-generation version of the seven-seat SUV will be unveiled on 28th September before making its public debut at the Paris Motor Show on the following day.
No details of the new Discovery have yet been released, apart from a quote by Land Rover chief design officer Gerry McGovern who says it; “redefines the large SUV – Land Rover’s design and engineering teams have revolutionised the Discovery DNA to create a highly desirable, extremely versatile and hugely capable premium SUV.”
The picture shows only the front end – suggesting that the car has evolved directly from the Discovery Vision Concept that was unveiled at the New York Auto Show in April 2014.
Judging by the front the new model looks much closer to the curvy profile of its upmarket sibling the Range Rover than previous generation Discos that have been more square and box like. This would fit in with reported plans by Land Rover to position the Discovery more upmarket.
While no technical details have been released yet, industry observers expect the new car to be much lighter than its predecessor due to extensive use of aluminium in the shell, the Discovery expected to make use of the same platform as the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models.
Powertrains should include the new Ingenium 2-litre diesel manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands. The V6 diesel that is the staple of the current Discovery is predicted to continue in the new model, while there will also be petrol variants.
Land Rover has stated that the new model will include ‘technology like no other’, leading to speculation that this could include a production version of the ‘transparent hood’ debuted on the Vision concept. This projects an image of the ground directly in front of the car and below the driver’s field of vision to a head-up display in the cockpit.
It is known that Land Rover intends the new Discovery to be part of a three-model range. As well as the already on-sale Discovery Sport, there could be a third, possibly smaller, model.
The new Discovery is expected in showrooms in 2017.
