Land Rover Discovery Sport Production EndsLand RoverThe Land Rover Discovery Sport will go out of production at theend of this year, according to a report by Autocar. The compact SUV arrivedin the U.S. in 2015 as a replacement for the LR2 but received just one majorrefresh during its 11-year run.In a statement to Car and Driver, Land Rover's U.S. representatives confirmed production will end in December 2026 "in line with normal product lifecycles as Halewood (the U.K. factory) transitions to building JLR's next-generation models."Autocar, however, reports that the Discovery Sport's discontinuation also coincides with the introduction of new European Union safety regulations requiring several features the SUV lacks. The publication notes that Porsche made a similar decision with the gas-powered Macan, which is scheduled to go out of production this summer.AdvertisementAdvertisementCustomers in the U.K. will be able to configure a Discovery Sport through the end of the year, but buyers in other European markets—including France, Germany, and Spain—can no longer place factory orders, according to Autocar.Jaguar Land Rover does not publicly report U.S. sales by individual model, but figures compiled by automotive sales-data website GoodCarBadCar show that the Discovery Sport had its best year in the country in 2016, when the company sold more than 14,200 units. According to the site, Land Rover sold just 1,100 Discovery Sports in the U.S. during the first half of this year.With the Discovery Sport gone, the Range Rover Evoque will likely stand alone as the least expensive model in Land Rover's U.S. lineup, at least for a time. Rumors suggest the company is preparing another entry-level model, but with JLR separating Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery into distinct brands, it is unclear whether a direct Discovery Sport replacement is coming anytime soon.We've reached out to Land Rover for further comment and will update this story when we hear back.
