The Land Rover Discovery Sport (internal code L550) is a compact luxury crossover SUV produced by British automotive company Jaguar Land Rover since 2014, under their Land Rover marque, and since 2017 their best-selling model.
Introduced in late 2014, it replaces the Freelander in a revised Land Rover range of vehicles, with Discovery joining Range Rover as a sub-brand. Contrary to its predecessor, the slightly larger car is also available in a seven seat layout.
The pre-facelift Discovery Sport is based on the JLR D8/LR-MS platform, customised for off-road applications, and is powered by a range of four cylinder petrol and diesel engines. It is the first Discovery introduced with a unibody structure.
The facelifted model is based on the modified version of the JLR D8/LR-MS platform, that's JLR PTA platform, as used by the Jaguar E-Pace and L551 version of Range Rover Evoque.
Overview
Conception
The Discovery Sport represents the third generation of compact SUV produced by Land Rover and replaced the Freelander. Although the Freelander model range had been a successful way to enable Land Rover to move into the medium SUV market, the company felt that the Freelander brand was tainted with memories of unreliability, and that the Discovery brand was more prestigious.
The future design direction of the Discovery sub-brand was initially previewed in the form of the Land Rover Discovery Vision concept, shown at the 2014 New York International Auto Show, and it was during the show that Gerry McGovern announced the Land Rover Discovery Sport would be the first new model in the enlarged Discovery family. The sub-brand was to be used in the same way as Range Rover, but on leisure and family orientated models, with Range Rover models focusing on the luxury market segment. The new Discovery sub-brand was to feature two models initially, the compact Discovery Sport and the larger Discovery (sold as the LR4 in North America and the Middle East).
Exterior
The Discovery Sport was styled by Gerry McGovern, who was responsible for the design of the original Freelander model. The Discovery Sport shares several design cues with the larger Discovery Vision concept, though the concept vehicle is closer in size to the Discovery 4 model. McGovern left Land Rover for Ford in 1999, before returning as Director of Advanced Design in 2004. He was promoted to Design Director when Geoff Upex retired in 2006, and has been responsible for design of all three current Range Rover models. His predecessor, Upex, was responsible for the Freelander 2 design.
The Discovery Sport features a steel monocoque, the bonnet, wings, roof and tailgate are made from aluminium and a panoramic glass sunroof is available either as standard or as an optional extra depending on model variant. A powered tailgate can also be specified as an option, featuring remote control operation.
In certain markets, the bonnet is fitted with an airbag to improve pedestrian survivability in the event of a collision. The airbag is mounted in a panel at the trailing edge of the bonnet panel and protects a pedestrian's head from striking the base of the windscreen.
Chassis
The Discovery Sport is the first to feature unibody construction — the larger, full size Discovery models were traditional body-on-frame SUVs, until the Discovery 5 followed suit in 2017. The platform used for the Discovery Sport is the Land Rover LR-MS platform, shared with the Range Rover Evoque and derived from the Ford EUCD platform, but with 90% of components redesigned from scratch to meet Land Rover's specific demands, primarily related to off-road use.
The Discovery Sport includes further changes to the platform in comparison with the Evoque, with a new compact rear multi-link suspension design to permit the folding rear seats and spare wheel well in the boot space, without requiring an unduly high and impractical load floor. The front suspension is a MacPherson strut design carried over from the Range Rover Evoque largely unchanged, and features steel lower and aluminium upper control arms.
Off-road performance remains broadly similar to the Freelander 2 model, ground clearance is , the same as the Freelander 2 and wading depth is , an improvement of . The approach angle for the Discovery Sport is 25° and the ramp angle is 21°, reductions of 6° and 2° respectively, when compared to the Freelander 2. The departure angle remains unchanged at 31°. The Discovery Sport features removable components on the lower sections of the front bumper which improves the approach angle.