Thursday 31st January 2019

£240k Range Rover SV Coupe canned

Stillborn two-door Range Rover was due to be produced in 999 units by SVO

---

It's not often that a car maker decides to cancel production of a new model after orders have already been placed. In fact, it's almost completely unheard of these days. But that's exactly what Land Rover has done with its Range Rover SV Coupe less than a year after the £240k model made its debut.

The official line from Land Rover is that the plug was pulled on production of all 999 cars so the company can focus attention on its core product line-up. But the move raises unanswered questions, like were there not enough orders, or did the company underestimate production costs of its bespoke model, which shared only two body panels with the standard car? We'll probably never know the full story.

All we can hope is that the death of the SV Coupe doesn't signal a tightening of purse for JLR's Special Vehicle Operations, which was the division tasked with building the 565hp supercharged V8 model. Because at a time when JLR's global sales have plummeted (they fell by 13.8% at the end of last year), you might imagine that SVO would be the first to feel the resulting squeeze of investment.

There may be a light at the end of the SVO tunnel, however, in the shape of the Jaguar F-Pace SVR. The regular F-Pace set records for Jaguar when it went on sale back in 2016, so this 550hp variant - which conveniently slots into a segment of performance SUVs that's bucked industry trends - could provide a welcome kick up the backside to hot Jag sales. It's due on roads in the coming weeks.

As for the SV Coupe, it looks like that ship's long since sailed.

[Mackofthejungle]

Probably for the best. Dangerous times for JLR... While the top of the market will continue to be ghastly and mostly tasteless, regular people are surely going to start moving over to smaller and more economical cars (relative to what they currently have) as the electric push happens.. The sad thing is, with their constant messing around they've probably missed the boat for the new Defender too...Although I guess an all electric Defender would make some sense; Farmers park their cars in the same spot every day after all, and if LR were serious about making it utilitarian then you'd save 500kgs in luxury to add 500kgs of batteries... There's your range. Wouldn't put me off.

How do you make affordable SUVs and off-roaders in an electric only world? I guess you stop fannying about trying to sell quarter million pound jokes and spend your money (and more importantly, time) wisely. But then again I'm an arse.