SUVs Are so 2017 - by 2020, Land Rover Will Build a Car

Think along the lines of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class CC. A BMW 7 Series Allroad. A Jaguar XJ Activ. A Lexus LS SUS.

It will be Land Rover’s Road Rover, Autocar reports. And it’s no joke. Targeted at China and California in particular, Land Rover’s Road Rover may appear at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show in advance of a 2020 on-sale date. Intended to wage war against the aforementioned full-size luxury cars, the Road Rover is believed to be equipped with a measure of “all-terrain” capability, Autocar says.

While the Range Rover Sport of 2005 was the original move toward more car-like Range Rovers, Land Rover extended its reach with the Range Rover Evoque in 2011 and this summer’s Range Rover Velar. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at the development of a Road Rover.

The brand’s trajectory was obvious.

It’s a somewhat humorous turn of events, regardless. After existing as a passenger car brand for eight decades, Land Rover’s Jaguar partner brand (both are owned by India’s Tata) launched its first SUV, the F-Pace, in the spring of 2016. Jaguar’s second utility vehicle, the E-Pace, will arrive this winter.

Ceding territory to Jaguar after nearly 70 years as an SUV-only series, Land Rover has allowed the F-Pace to become Jaguar Land Rover’s best-selling model globally, TTAC’s Adam Tonge learned at Jaguar’s North American E-Pace unveiling. (The Range Rover Sport leads the way for JLR in North America.) The Jaguar E-Pace, meanwhile, is expected to become JLR’s global No.2. What’s a sibling rival supposed to do? Land Rover will turn the tide, thereby claiming a portion of Jaguar’s luxury car territory.

The Road Rover will be an exceptionally high-end model. Autocar says it’ll be priced from £90,000 ($121,300) – the Range Rover starts at £76,795. The first Road Rover would also be intended to act as the patriarch of a range of road-oriented models, some even more car-like with others more rugged.

The idea of a Road Rover, just like the idea that translated into the new Range Rover Velar, goes back decades. Autocar says merging a Rover with a Land Rover was part of the plan as far back as the 1950s and again in the 1960s. The result of that plan, however, became the Range Rover.

But we know that Land Rover believes no niche is too small to fill. Indeed, Land Rover design boss Gerry McGovern said recently that even identically sized and priced Land Rovers can coexist “if they had two personalities then they’ve both got equal appeal but to different customers.” Yet in this case, the car with which the Road Rover will share the most will be the next-generation Jaguar XJ, not exactly the Land Rover Defender.

[Images: Jaguar-Land Rover; Illustration: Matt Posky]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars and Instagram.