Photo: SB-Medien
Land Rover is working on a much sharper-looking Discovery Sport model. This heavily camouflaged prototype still hints at some design changes as it goes around the legendary Nurburgring track.
The 2020 Discovery Sport is a bit of a mystery. On the one hand, it's supposed to be a statement, while on the other, Land Rover is suggesting that it's a new model, transitioning to some sort of fancy platform called PTA.
Our spies don't support this last theory. The frames of the doors and the glass appear to be the same. It's not unheard of for new generations of cars to have the same greenhouse as older ones, but it's usually cheap ones. Not only is the Discovery Sport not cheap, but it's also LR's most popular SUV.
But there's no denying the facelift is unusually bold for Land Rover. At the front, we have brand new headlights, much sharper and LED-powered, created in the image of the Velar. The design of the air intakes and main grille appear similar to the upcoming Evoque II.
Some have read into the lack of visible exhaust pipes a little too much. The Discovery Sport is just going down the same route as its German rivals. Not having the muffler stick out streamlines the aerodynamic profile of the vehicle.
Of course, it's also very likely that this is a hybrid or plug-in hybrid., which is undeniably something Land Rover is working on. With decreasing demand for diesel and ever-stricter emissions regulations, most cars and SUVs of this price are going green.
The consensus seems to be that you use a combustion engine of around 1.5 liters of displacement and combine it with an 100 horsepower e-motor for a total output of over 200 HP. Land Rover and Jaguar have both hinted that their larger 2-liter 4-cylinder turbo units will also have mild hybrid assist starting in around 2020.
Our spies don't support this last theory. The frames of the doors and the glass appear to be the same. It's not unheard of for new generations of cars to have the same greenhouse as older ones, but it's usually cheap ones. Not only is the Discovery Sport not cheap, but it's also LR's most popular SUV.
But there's no denying the facelift is unusually bold for Land Rover. At the front, we have brand new headlights, much sharper and LED-powered, created in the image of the Velar. The design of the air intakes and main grille appear similar to the upcoming Evoque II.
Some have read into the lack of visible exhaust pipes a little too much. The Discovery Sport is just going down the same route as its German rivals. Not having the muffler stick out streamlines the aerodynamic profile of the vehicle.
Of course, it's also very likely that this is a hybrid or plug-in hybrid., which is undeniably something Land Rover is working on. With decreasing demand for diesel and ever-stricter emissions regulations, most cars and SUVs of this price are going green.
The consensus seems to be that you use a combustion engine of around 1.5 liters of displacement and combine it with an 100 horsepower e-motor for a total output of over 200 HP. Land Rover and Jaguar have both hinted that their larger 2-liter 4-cylinder turbo units will also have mild hybrid assist starting in around 2020.
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