Photo: original image by autoevolution
There are many things that the guys at Jaguar Land Rover do very well, one of them being to play the underdog game of catch-up. While the new XE sedan uses an aluminum platform and some trick new engines to go after the BMW 3 Series, the new Discovery Sport is hot on the heels of the Audi Q5 SUV.
Knowing its clients won't be satisfied with the promise of space travel, Land Rover director of programs Murray Dietsch has now revealed the new Discovery Sport might also be a rival for the SQ5 TDI, a 313 PS sports SUV from Germany.
This project/idea is sure to get a lot of attention and, if Discovery Sport sales work in Land Rover's favor, could soon be approved for production. For now though, the Australian-born company official says it's only a hypothetical car, according to CarAdvice.
Dietsch's words suggest a diesel engine rather than a petrol one would be better because there's less opposition/rivalry in that segment: “If you did a 300hp (224kW) petrol or something like that then there’s probably not going to be a huge amount of call for it in Europe, but if you did a 250hp (186kW) diesel then there might be.”
Can it be done?
Oh yes, yes it can. We consider the Land Rover director's words to be quite the understatement. 250 horsepower from a performance diesel engine is more than just feasible, it's expected. Volkswagen has just introduced a 240 PS 2-liter twin-turbo'd TDI on the new Passat while Audi's 3-liter BiTDI diesel has just been updated to 320 PS.
Land Rover actually already has a mill it can work with, the 3.0 SDV6, which in the Range Rover Sport delivers 292 PS and 600 Nm (442 lb-ft) of torque. While pushing around 2.1 tons of SUV, it's capable of sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.2 seconds.
Of course, numbers don't tell the whole story. the Discovery Sport would still be at a huge disadvantage, even if it had its own 300 horsepower diesel. In a few years, Audi will switch to using electric superchargers on its diesel engines, giving better response times and economy rating. And even though the SQ5 is very fast, it plays second fiddle to BMW's admittedly larger and more expensive X5 M50d model.
Land Rover actually already has a mill it can work with, the 3.0 SDV6, which in the Range Rover Sport delivers 292 PS and 600 Nm (442 lb-ft) of torque. While pushing around 2.1 tons of SUV, it's capable of sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.2 seconds.
Of course, numbers don't tell the whole story. the Discovery Sport would still be at a huge disadvantage, even if it had its own 300 horsepower diesel. In a few years, Audi will switch to using electric superchargers on its diesel engines, giving better response times and economy rating. And even though the SQ5 is very fast, it plays second fiddle to BMW's admittedly larger and more expensive X5 M50d model.
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