Land Rover is considering another entry into the burgeoning super-luxury SUV market, with design boss Gerry McGovern hinting that an exclusive two-door, SVO-built Range Rover could be on the way.
Reports from motoring.com.au confirm that when asked about the brand’s intentions for the segment, McGovern said: “Watch this space. I can’t say when or what, but there are opportunities. We have proven with Range Rover that there are opportunities to offer derivations of these vehicles, to offer them in a way to bring something new to the market.”
The brand also patented the Range Stormer name earlier this year; the original Range Stormer was a concept revealed at the Detroit motor show in early 2004 as a muscular two-door prelude to the Range Rover Sport, which entered production later that year.
Land Rover has a history of two-door models. It currently sells the two-door Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Evoque Convertible, while the original Range Rover was produced in two-door form. There was also the limited-edition Range Rover CSK, which paid tribute to Charles Spencer King, the car’s original designer.
McGovern alluded to SVO’s involvement in the project, saying: “The good thing with SVO is that it's a self-funding business, so there are opportunities within SVO that don’t necessarily have to be mainstream and small-volume [vehicles] lend themselves beautifully to that. A limited-edition model that pays for itself (and makes JLR profit) is far easier to create a business case for.”
Furthering the exclusivity aspect of the model, McGovern alluded to two-door models’ now relative small number compared with their five-door counterparts as the car industry moves away from less practical and slower-selling two-doors.
A two-door Range Rover would certainly be exclusive - the super-luxury SUV market currently contains no two-door cars, while the recently introduced Lamborghini Urus resembling a coupé the closest, despite having five doors. The Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan both have five doors, while no specifics are yet known about the upcoming Ferrari SUV.
The new model would likely sit atop the Range Rover line-up, higher even than the extended-wheelbase Range Rover SVAutobiography, which tops out the range at £167,850. The exclusivity of the Range Stormer could push the model's price tag to £200,000 or beyond.
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