Range Rover is going green! These shots are the first ever of the new LRX - which Land Rover today confirmed will be launched in 2011.
Based on the popular LRX concept first shown at the 2008 Detroit Motor Show, the new model is tipped to debut 'green' technology which will later make it onto all Range Rover models.
Designed and engineered at the firm's HQ in Gaydon, the firm is promising that the new Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle the company has ever produced.
Built in the UK at Halewood, Merseyside, the car will be sold in over 100 countries around the world.
Phil Popham, Managing Director of Land Rover said: "The production of a small Range Rover model is excellent news for our employees, dealers and customers. It is a demonstration of our commitment to investing for the future, delivering revant vehicles with the outstanding breadth of capablility for which we are world-renowned."
The prototype pictured here sports a Freelander body but the wheelbase is clearly shorter and the camouflaged front suggests that the mule has an updated grille.
Though the car’s technical specification is still being determined, it’s thought the newcomer is likely to share some parts with the current Freelander, and offer an engine range capable of delivering on the firm’s emissions promise of 150g co2/km
A hybrid version is also thought to be under development, capable of returning less than 120g co2/km.
Sources have suggested that the LRX will be unveiled on the 17th June next year; a date that will mark exactly 40 years since the original Range Rover was introduced.
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Please don't bring it over to the US, it will get squashed!
Are you affraid it will get squashed by other American cars or their over sized drivers?
As a keen 4x4 fan, I'm glad to see that environmental issues are being addressed by manufacturers of these types of vehicle. I hope that the 4x4 bashers will shut up, get on their little bicycles and cycle off to another self opinionated crusade! This 4x4 looks good, I just hope it is as good off road as a Land Rover should be.
Ian, I am afraid you're wrong mate, IMHO. The back is terrible, and it looks nothing like the concept. Okay, so there are not that many cars that actually get produced looking like the concept, but, come on! One would expect a higher roofline at the back, smaller wheels maybe, but what about the rest of it? It looks like another Freelander!
The camouflaged car in the pictures is the mule for the LRX, which means it's a workhorse they're using to test the engine and the mechanicals. The production LRX will look nothing like that.
Land Rover need to get on with updating their model line. Just make sure you can get 2 upright mountain bikes inside...dont mind removing the front wheeel!
The sooner a diesel electric hybrid is hatched the better.
diesel is right, LR should stop fannying around and get the LRX and new Defender out soon as. Chicken is also correct, the pics show a mule (I don't know why the journalist who wrote the above article didn't make that clearer - these aren't the first pics of the LRX at all!!! - Bob809 fell for it). Even the pic of the LRX isn't correct either. The roofline will either be flat or actually rise up, not down. Anyways, three years is wayyyyyyyyyyyy too long. Big mistake, LR - yet again! History of mis-management continues.
I think the auto show to do well.All cars are trying to innovation, But I think they should also be in service projects.Increased innovation,
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it just looks like the freelander, the fact that its going green big up!!! cant wait to see its horsepower!!!! and what year is 20121???
Hope that's a joke about the 'Freelander' Murbin, otherwise you're not paying attention.
This vehicle will be a disaster for the Range Rover tradition and reputation. it looks like a slightly overgrown Freelander and looks completely LAME lacking both looks and refinement.
Might make a good shopping trolley....
Whomever desigend this at LR needs to be replaced....
And I didn't mean the pic above... I meant the black throw together that is obviously not the end product but by the size of the wheelbase etc the end result will not be good....
When I first saw and commented on this report the pictures were of the Freelander Mule only. So, obviously I made a right wobbly (sounds like 'bit') bit of myself.
Yes, with the Freeklander (not a typo) body style shown in the pics above it would look hideous. With the current spy shots showing the (I wonder if it really is) real shape, well, as I said for that report, Wow! Looks great.