Freelander reborn: JLR-Chery tie-up to reveal new SUV next week

Chery has confirmed that the first model for its new Freelander brand will be revealed next Tuesday (31 March).

The Chinese company (which sells cars in the UK under its Chery, Jaecoo and Omoda brands) is reviving the Freelander name in collaboration with JLR for a new line of electrified crossovers.

It will use fundamentally the same underpinnings as it uses for its other SUV brands, but the cars will be marked out by a bespoke, JLR-led design language that draws on the original Land Rover Freelander.

A new official preview image shows the distinctive front light signature of the first Freelander model, which is expected to be a defining feature of the line-up as it expands. 

While Freelanders will at first be sold only in the Chinese market, there is “potential for global expansion”, JLR China president Qing Pan said previously.

Chery is developing the electrified model range using an in-house-developed "flexible" platform, Pan said. 

Autocar has learned that this is Chery’s T1X platform, which underpins various cars from its other brands, such as the Jaecoo 7.

The first new Freelander is set to be a plug-in hybrid with a design that blends chunky off-road visual cues with a Porsche Macan-style coupé shape - as imagined below by Autocar, prior to the latest teaser.

It will “echo the original spirit of Freelander but [be] brought up to date to appeal to discerning, technologically savvy Chinese consumers,” Pan said.

The new Freelander will give Chery JLR's factory a replacement for the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque, production of which will end this year. 

It will sit in different market segment from JLR’s imported high-end models in China, such as the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Defender. 

JLR has said the new Freelander will be sold in a network of its own dedicated, Chery-run dealerships.

Freelander doesn't come under JLR's luxury-focused ‘House of Brands’ marketing and sales strategy, which effectively splits Jaguar, Defender, Discovery and Range Rover into stand-alone model lines. 

In the UK and mainland Europe, a Chinese-built Freelander could cannibalise sales of the cheaper models based on JLR's new EMA EV platform, such as the upcoming Range Rover Velar and Land Rover Defender Sport.

That would make the business case for selling Freelanders in those markets harder to justify.

The original Freelander was launched in 1997 in three-door and five-door forms. It was the first Land Rover with a monocoque platform and “pioneered the compact premium SUV”, said Pan. It lasted for two generations before being replaced by the Discovery Sport in 2015.