Jaguar Land Rover in search of identity

Everything is very complicated. This statement applies not only to the Austrian policy, but also to many car brands. Above all, the exact model names of traditional British manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (today a subsidiary of the Indian Tata group) can cause confusion. This primarily applies to cars of the Range Rover sub-brand. Since these also belong to the Land Rover brand, exotic designations like “Land Rover Range Rover” or “Land Rover Range Rover Sport” have been a part of everyday life for many years.

The Land Rover brand is disappearing

This must be the end of it in the end. As part of the recently introduced “Reimagine” strategy, the so-called “House of Brands” approach is effective immediately. In other words: the Land Rover brand is gone, but the Range Rover has been upgraded into a car brand of its own. From now on, the Range Rover will actually only be called the Range Rover, as will the Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Evoque models. So far, so good. Apparently, Gaydon’s marketing strategists went a bit too far. Because the previous Discovery and Defender model names have been upgraded to their respective brands. This leads to the curious conclusion that over the past decades the same model has been called at first only Land Rover and then for a long time Land Rover Defender. From now on, the manufacturer’s legend bears only the Defender name – thus eventually losing its original name.

The three Land Rover brands should now be on par with Jaguar in the group. To make the confusion perfect, the Land Rover name should not be lost completely, but continue to exist as a kind of umbrella brand. The former Jaguar Land Rover superstructure will not be used, but the JLR acronym will be used.

Defender 130 Outbound premium model

The first press release of the ‘new’ Defender car brand concerns an additional luxury model. The longest-running Defender to date can now be ordered from local dealers under the name Defender 130 Outbound. The new version offers five seats and a maximum of 2,516 liters of storage space. With a trailer load of up to three tons, the nearly 130 is specified as a tow vehicle for heavy-duty trailers or boat trailers. On the one hand, a diesel D300 with mild hybrid technology is available as an engine. If you need more power, you can go with the five-liter V8 rated at 368 kW or 500 hp in the 2024 model year, with maximum torque of 610 Nm. The P400 and D250 inline-six also remain in the range.