Jaguar and Land Rover plan model blitz

Jaguar Land Rover will reveal 50 ‘significant new products’ in the next five years, as it doubles its current schedule of launches in a bid to take on the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes by the end of the decade.

Wolfgang Ziebart, director of group engineering for JLR, also confirmed that the brand was investing £3.5 billion a year in research and development in order to spur this growth, and that a raft of hybrid vehicles would form a core part of the product reveals

‘Hybrid will be a key part of our product actions,’ said Ziebart. ‘Any concerns people may have had that cars like the Range Rover wouldn’t be able to survive CO2 targets can be assured that we see a clear path to providing answers.

‘The goal is for JLR to be the leader in automotive technology. Our customers are buying sophisticated vehicles, so they deserve and can afford more sophisticated technology than others provide; hybrid is part of that.’

Jaguar Land Rover is aiming at fleet average CO2 emissions of 130g/km by 2021.

Upcoming planned launches from Jaguar include the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C-class rival, the Jaguar XE, a Jaguar crossover and a new Jaguar flagship model, which would take the place of the discontinued Jaguar XK.

Meanwhile, the Land Rover Freelander replacement, the Land Rover Discovery Sport, is set to launch in early 2015 and pave the way for a new family of Discovery branded vehicles. Likewise, a more rugged family of cars built around the ethos of the Land Rover Defender is expected to follow.