Rumorpile: Jaguar/Land Rover's SVO Division Looks Into Off-Road Focused Models

Since Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division came online earlier this year, they have been primarily focused on building high-performance models such as the Jaguar Project 7 and Range Rover Sport SVR. But a recent interview with the head of SVO shows the division has some other ideas in the works.

“There are four different types of cars we want to do at SVO. There are on-road performance cars, all-terrain performance cars that we haven’t done so far, luxury derivatives and what we’re calling collector’s editions, like the Project 7," said John Edwards, head of SVO.

“On-road performance is fairly easy; you just think about ‘M’ and ‘AMG’ and think how can we apply the same thinking. All-terrain is slightly different; clearly much more appropriate for Land Rover than Jaguar. Land Rover has that all-terrain capability built into all its products, but we need to give customers the permission to use it.”

The last line of Edwards' response is interesting to say in the least. What does he mean by 'we need to give customers the permission to use it?' Again John Edwards,

“For example, the material for the seats; it’s leather versus a material that’s very durable and very hi-tech. It’s about ground clearance, it’s about wheel and tyre combinations, it’s about underbody protection, because actually the capability of the cars is class-leading anyway in most cases.”

Edwards didn't go as far to mention which models are being considered for this change, but hinted that the Range Rover could be one of the first models.

Source: Auto Express

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.