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Land Rover Freelander Set To Return As A Half Chinese EV
Do you remember the Land Rover Freelander? The model has been gone for ten years, but the Freelander model name will return soon, not so much on one model, but on a new model family.
Nowadays, Jaguar Land Rover no longer only has the Land Rover and Jaguar brands. The group operates what it calls ‘a brand house’. Model names such as Discovery and Defender are now brands within JLR, just like Jaguar and Range Rover. There will be another one soon: Freelander. You probably remember the name of the model that came onto the market in the second half of the 1990s and whose second generation lasted until 2015. The Discovery Sport and the Evoque more or less succeeded the Freelander, but now it is making a comeback.
Jaguar Land Rover and the Chinese Chery, which have the Chery Jaguar Land Rover (CJLR) partnership in China, are planning to develop a new Freelander model family. The joint venture will have an ‘advanced portfolio of electric models’. The electric models of the new Freelander family will be on a Chery platform, but they will be designed by Jaguar Land Rover.
Jaguar Land Rover specifically calls the new models mainstream, and that seems to mean that they will be lower on the status ladder than the Discoveries and Defenders. Totally Freelander. Do they stay in China? Certainly not. The new Freelanders will first be marketed in China but will later also be exported to other markets. So they will be built in China and will be in CJLR’s factory in Changshu.
Land Rover Freelander (1997)
Land Rover Freelander 2 (2006)
