After suffering some serious financial setbacks, Jaguar Land Rover's future is finally looking brighter. The launch of the new Land Rover Discovery, which exceeded Land Rover's order expectations, helped the automaker return to profit last year. Now, Autocar reports that Land Rover is focusing on the design and development of the new Range Rover Sport, which will become the firm's most important model as the current Range Rover Sport generates huge profits.

Before Ford sold Land Rover in 2008, the first-generation Sport reportedly generated the highest profit margins of any Ford product in the world, despite only selling around 35,000 units annually. The second-generation model, on the other hand, outsold the regular Range Rover, with peak sales of 80,000 units annually.

Land Rover's new Porsche Cayenne rival is expected to retain the current model's winning formula of luxury, performance, and capability, while also adopting electrified powertrains and more advanced tech. But before the next-generation model arrives, the current Range Rover Sport, which has been on sale since 2013, will be updated with a subtle styling refresh and a new mild-hybrid straight-six Ingenium engine option.

The design of the new Range Rover Sport isn't expected to be as dramatic as the second-generation model was compared to the original. A radical redesign would simply be too risky for such a profitable model.

Compared to the current model, the new Range Rover Sport will benefit from improved handling thanks to the adoption of Land Rover's new MLA hybrid platform, which will debut on the new electric Jaguar XJ flagship. This new platform will enable Jaguar Land Rover to produce mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure-electric versions of the same model on the same production line.

While the 2021 Range Rover is expected to use a BMW-sourced V8, the new Range Rover Sport will adopt a more eco-friendly, forced-induction straight-six with mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology. A BMW-sourced four-cylinder hybrid model could also be in the cards. We'll get to see these changes in a few years when the new Range Rover Sport goes on sale in 2022 following the launch of the next-generation Range Rover.