Land Rover Drops Plans for Specialty Models

Amid slumping profits and unit sales, Jaguar Land Rover Ltd.’s Land Rover unit has canceled plans for two niche models: the ultra-luxury Range Rover SV Coupe and a production version of the 2017 Discovery SVX off-road concept.

Land Rover officials tell Autocar that the carmaker will focus its resources on launching next-generation versions of current models, such as the Discovery Sport and Defender SUVs due next year.

Land Rover unveiled the SV Coupe crossover (right) at last year’s Geneva auto show and planned to start production early this year. With a starting price of about $300,000, the limited-run model was expected to compete against the Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan crossover vehicles.

Land Rover eventually plans to launch the SVX off-road sub-brand on other models, Autocar says. No other details were provided.

Earlier this week JLR announced it needs to raise $1 billion in the next 14 months to replace maturing bonds. Due to slow sales in China and the negative impact of Brexit, the British carmaker wrote down £3.1 billion ($4 billion) in asset value and cut its U.K. workforce.