Land Rover is already working on its successor, and Carscoops spy photographers
snapped another prototype of the BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz GLE and Audi Q7
challenger out testing in the cold.
It will be a while until the heavy camo
and cladding start coming off, but the design is understood to be an evolution
of the current model with plenty of styling cues borrowed from the Velar. It
will retain, however, the series’ characteristic square profile and prominent
front end.
The prototype seen playing on a snowy road
in northern Europe had a quad exhaust pipe layout. On top of that, our spies
said that the engine sounded very nice, hinting at a possible V8 engine. While
there’s no way of debugging the rumor, Land Rover is tipped to be working on a
comprehensive engine deal with BMW, which will see the latter lend its
four-cylinder and V8 turbo units to the next-gen Range Rover flagship, and they
could do the same to the Sport model. JLR’s new straight-six turbo in both mild
and full-hybrid variants will also be on offer.
As for the platform, the third generation
Range Rover Sport is believed to be based on JLR’s new MLA (Modular Longitudinal Architecture) which has
been designed to accommodate an assortment of different powertrains including
internal combustion engines, mild hybrid systems, plug-in hybrid systems and
fully electric powertrains. It will be shared among others with the upcoming
Jaguar XJ electric flagship sedan.
The all-new Range Rover Sport is believed
to be introduced at the end of 2021 or early 2022.
