It is coming. The UK market gets the Freelander 8 in the second half of 2025.
Don’t call it a Land Rover though. It isn’t. That would be wrong, misleading even. This is a licensing deal. Land Rover lends its name. Chery does the rest. Engineering, manufacturing, selling — that’s all Chery’s playground. P.B Balaji, the Land Rover CEO, said as much to Auto Express. He was clear about it.
“From a design perspective, we’ll take ownership of it… thereafter in terms of engineering… it’s Chery’s car.”
Simple as that. Design happens in the UK because Land Rover wants to control the aesthetic. It needs to sync with JLR values. The rest is foreign soil. And Freelander isn’t just one car. It’s a family. A whole lineage tracing back to the 1990s icon.
But you won’t find these in your local Land Rover dealer. They won’t be.
The Elephant in the Room
The Freelander 8 is the big brother. Well, the giant cousin. It sits at the top of this new range. At 5.1 meters long, it dwarfs the competition. Add 350mm to a Defender 110 and you start getting close to this beast’s proportions.
Space is plentiful. Up to six people can cram in there. Smaller versions are coming too, including a shorter two-row SUV, but the 8 leads the charge.
It rides on Chery’s flexible architecture. Not a ladder frame like a Defender. A unibody. But it still flexes for off-road duties. Center and rear locking diffs? Yes. Height-adjustable air suspension? Probably. Decoupled anti-roll bars? We’re waiting for confirmation. The torsional rigidity metrics won’t match a Defender, let’s be real, but the capability aims high.
Under the hood — if you can call it that — sits Chery’s tech. No expensive UK-built engines here. A 1.5-liter turbo petrol engine acts mostly as a generator. It feeds two electric motors. It’s a plug-in hybrid system, similar to Chery’s existing iCar off-roaders sold in China. Those things hit 451bhp. This one likely follows suit, pulling juice from a 34.3 kWh battery.
How far will it go on electricity? Maybe 30 miles? Rivaling the Defender 110 PHEWL? We expect nothing less.
We don’t know exactly how the electric motors interact with those locking diffs. We’ll see closer to launch. Full electric models aren’t on the radar yet, but the wind might change.
Looking Like The Future
It is imposing. Tall, wide, longer than a Defender. The design retains traits from the Concept 97 prototype. Blocky headlights. Futuristic vibes, yet tied to that rugged heritage.
Overseas markets get some weird tricks. The headlights have small screens inside. They act as DRLs and display info for pedestrians. EU regulators will probably hate that. Probably ban it.
The doors are clever, though. The window sits inside the door frame. It runs over the bodyside curve. No part line means a cleaner look and a wider opening. Bold wheelarches stick out. The roof gets a blacked-out rear section, always gloss black.
Paint colors are loud. Lime green. Bright purple. Eight choices total. If you like being seen.
The Cockpit
Land Rover designed the interior too, but it feels new to them. A massive screen spans the width of the dash, sitting right at the windshield junction. The steering wheel is flat on top, keeping the view clear.
The software is Chinese-developed. Chery made the digital interface. A central touchscreen handles commands, but there are physical buttons below it. Rare for these cars, actually. A welcome relief?
Or just a holdover for the Chinese market. The cabin feels tuned for Asia. Captain’s chairs in the back. A large roof screen for rear passengers. Vibrant ambient lighting everywhere.
Six interior trims are available. Black, brown, purple, beige. Leather and dash colors mix and match. No seven-seater configuration. You get captain’s chairs row two, two seats row three. That’s it. When this hits the UK, we suspect that second-row bench might change. European families need seven seats, usually. The boot is tight behind the third row, by the way. Accessible via a top-hinged tailgate, hidden wiper and all.
The Business End
Why are they doing this? JLR brings design credibility. Chery brings batteries and platforms. Freelander operates as a standalone brand, separate from the “House of Brands.” Range Rover stays premium. Defender stays iconic. Discovery… well, that’s messy.
Discovery needs a relaunch. Soon. It needs an identity. But if Discovery becomes “space and tech for less money,” it walks right into Freelander’s path.
Freelander CEO Wen Fei talked about conquest at the launch. Words like “pinnacle,” “formidable,” and “reliant cadence” floated around. He promised five new models in five years. All SUVs. PHEV, range-extended, electric. A matrix of metal and silicon.
The first debut? China, second half of this year.
UK prices? Unannounced. But history suggests it undercuts the Defender. The current Defender starts around £60,00. Freelander aims lower. Export costs will push that up from China prices, though. Exchange rates are a bitch.
Will you buy a car designed by the Brits but built by the Chinese under the old Freelander badge?
“Freelander will conquer every market.”
That was the quote. Time will tell.
