Land Rover and Chery Collaboration Creates New Freelander Based on New Energy Vehicle

JAKARTA - Chery and Land Rover have forged an interesting collaboration. Not without reason, but rather re-birthed the Freelander brand which will later operate independently.

Citing the Carnewschina website, Thursday, April 2, as a global brand will come with the face of New Energy Vehicles (new energy vehicles) as well as the latest technology, and its first model is scheduled to be launched in the second half of this year.

Freelander's global headquarters is located in Shanghai, equipped with a comprehensive global layout that includes the UK's Gaydon Design Center, Shanghai Design Center, Suzhou Research Institute, and Changshu Intelligent Manufacturing Base.

All products will be co-designed by Jaguar Land Rover's Gaydon Global Design Centre in the UK and the local Shanghai design team.

Interestingly, the Freelander brand plans to make a quick global launch. New products are scheduled to be released every six months, with a total of six new vehicles expected in the next five years.

Later, Freelander will introduce a new platform designed to cover the entire range of SUV products. This architecture supports pure electric powertrains, plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and range-extended or EREV. The brand will launch an 800V high-voltage range-extended platform.

Concept97

The first model of the Freelander brand was the Concept97 concept car, built on the T1X architecture developed in-house by Chery, a global platform known for its flexibility and scalability across SUV wheelbase ranges.

Designed under the guidance of Jaguar Land Rover's Chief Creative Officer, Gerry McGovern, Concept97 inherits the DNA of the original Freelander while presenting a younger and more dynamic aesthetic. The car features a classic "box-shaped" sturdy silhouette, square-shaped headlights, and a prominent "Freelander" brand emblem on the front, using the Defender series design language. The rear design also features the brand logo.

Positioned as a medium to large six-seater SUV, the Concept97 has a length of more than 5,100 mm and a wheelbase of more than 3,000 mm. Its 2+2+2 seating configuration includes a right-side second row seat with zero gravity mode for maximum comfort.

Concept97 is powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8397 chip. The car has a dual-screen layout with a floating center screen and a separate screen. There is also a three-bar steering wheel, an electronic gear lever in the steering column, and two wireless charging pads in the center console.