Disco primed for JLR reboot

Next-gen SUV will emphasise a "family adventure" focus and is tipped for ICE and EV

- WILL RIMELL

JLR will reinvent the ailing Discovery brand for its sixth generation by repositioning it in its own "unique territory" and moving it away from its Defender sibling, which has been "cannibalising" sales.

The current Discovery has been on sale since 2017, making it the oldest model in the Land Rover stable. It is also the slowest-selling, notching up only 16,750 global sales last year, almost half that of the Discovery Sport.

Despite the Discovery making up just 4% of JLR's total sales, the British firm remains committed to bringing it back for another generation and will focus efforts on more clearly defining the Discovery's positioning around its "family adventures" values.

Discovery and Defender brands boss Mark Cameron told Autocar the repositioning will need to move the Discovery away from its Defender sibling, which offers comparable refinement and space with a broader spread of engines, trims and body sizes. The Defender's 110,367 sales in 2023 were more than six times higher than those of its Discovery sibling.

"If you look from a product perspective, Defender came in and sat quite squarely on top of Discovery and cannibalised a lot of that business," Cameron told Autocar.

JLR will attempt to set Discovery apart by moving it into a new space, Autocar understands, possibly by adopting some MPV design elements. The Volkswagen ID Buzz, for example, has been touted as a potential reference.