Planned for a 2012 launch, the replacement for the traditional 61-year-old Land Rover is underway in JLR’s Gaydon design center. Dubbed Project Icon, the plan is for a relatively simple, steel-suspended workhorse meant to attract lower-end Discovery buyers.
The vehicle is expected to arrive soon after Land Rover’s existing iconic model, the Defender, reaches the end of the road. Hence, the latest model would then be able to reach the Defender’s more than 160 various export markets. The new Project Icon workhorse is based on the sturdy, capable but heavy T5 steel platform chassis used for the current Discovery and Range Rover Sport models. Incidentally, these two models will be replaced beyond 2012 by aluminum-based models, which are between 400kg and 500kg lighter.
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