For a long time, Land Rover has been known around the world as builders of some of the best off-road vehicles ever offered. Not only are Land Rovers pioneers to unexplored corners of the globe, but they were also the first to create the luxury SUV segment. So where did Land Rover fall short in the SUV game? According to John Edwards, the managing director of Special Vehicles Operation (SVO) at Jaguar Land Rover, an off-road halo car is what's missing.
Land Rover wants to make it happen, so it is taking a Discovery and beefing up the suspension, engine, and other components to make an all-terrain killer. This wouldn't be your standard Land Rover that is suited for crossing rivers and making trips to Whole Foods. This car would be a diehard Ford F-150 Raptor and Mercedes G-Class 4x4 Squared. In other words, this Rover wouldn't suit any suburban families because it will be an-out-of-the-box stock truck for those who want to abuse suspension systems and nature simultaneously. JLR's SVO segment is already tasked with creating the Land Rover Range Rover SVAutobiography and the Jaguar F-Type SVR.
To JLR, the SVA badge means extreme luxury while SVR is reserved for the racetrack. Interestingly enough, there is a Land Rover SUV that carries an SVR badge and leads a double life as off-roader and ultimate racetrack sleeper. So it's only logical that a company so entrenched in making the best off-road vehicles will designate a new division to designing the toughest off-road vehicles possible. This extreme Discovery has been in the rumor pipeline for a while now, but Edwards has all but confirmed that we will see it in the next two years. Following the new Discovery SVX will be an even more hardcore SVX version of the new Defender, which is sure to put the competition on edge.