With Jaguar Cleaned Up, Tata Moves to Awaken Land Rover

There was a lot of skepticism about India’s Tata Motors acquiring the old Motherland’s prized Land Rover and Jag properties.  On the Jag end, the skepticism has subsided with heightened reliability and the likes of the XK, XF, and XJ.  (It should be noted, development began way back in the Ford era.)  This week saw breaking news on two critical Land Rover projects: a replacement for the Defender (the purest Rover SUV left) and acknowledgement that the LRX project is underway.

Refresh:

The LRX is a two-door sport-ute concept unveiled in Detroit in January of last year.  The LRX runs on a diesel-electric 2.0 L flat-four.  The LRX uses lightweight composite materials, regenerative braking, and a  flex-fuel setup to achieve maximum engineering efficiency.  Using a hazy conversion standard, the LRX should achieve a minimum fuel economy rate in the middle forties.