July 27: Road Rover - this is how rumours get started

Land Rover. Range Rover. Road Rover? Yes, friendo, this is how rumours get started. A company patents a new name and all of a sudden the rumour mill runs rampant about what kind of new vehicle will bear this moniker. Hey, this is the car business and what fuels our passion is chasing those rumours and creating endless speculation. So back to the Road Rover.

Land Rover morphed into the uber (not that uber) expensive and uber capable Range Rover, so when the name Road Rover is being protected, what kind of Land Rover can we expect? Maybe one that has no off road ability? Nah, that would be like Jeep doing a boulevard cruiser (yeah, like the insane Trackhawk isn't one already?). Way back when, Land Rover used the Road Rover name on a couple of design studies........

Road Rover 1 prototype

Road Rover 2 prototype

 Aren't you glad neither of these two saw the light of the production line? Land Rover has done so much better over the intervening years. But this is now, so what have the journalists dug up that would fit this new line of Land Rovers?

Speculation is that the Road Rover be the start of an electric line of Land Rovers? If so, the car below was imagined by one of the Brit car magazines........

Not much imagination here, but just random doodling about what could be with a Land Rover grille grafted on. I personally don't see the company going in this direction, especially with sedan sales heading to the bottom of the car market sea.

What about this one........

Yep, this is more like it. A softer off roader, that could tackle a dirt driveway with ease and still maintain many of the Range Rover design cues. Who cares that it can't climb Mount Everest? There are no recharging stations up there anyway.

Makes sense that Land Rover would be looking at something electric, as their sister brand Jaguar now has the I-Pace and we all know that the industry is headed toward some sort of electrification. Guesstimates are that the earliest we'll see a Road Rover would be about 2022. Better get moving folks, as these current electric models won't sustain the brand over the long term.........

Until next time..........