The Freelander 8 gathered 10,000 orders in 48 hours. This JLR and Chery retro SUV is targeting Europe.
The new Freelander 8, the first model in the Freelander series revived by Chery Jaguar Land Rover, received over 10,000 pre-orders within 48 hours of its presale launch in China on August 14. Prices start at 339,900 yuan, which is approximately $50,000.
This is a strong signal of demand, but with a caveat. In China, such figures usually rely on deposit payments, so real deliveries are still some time away.
What is the Freelander 8 and how much does it cost?
The Freelander 8 is a large luxury SUV with EREV powertrain, meaning it’s an electric vehicle equipped with a combustion engine generator. It was developed by a joint venture between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover, which separated Freelander into its own brand of electrified vehicles in March. The plan is to launch 6 models within 5 years.
5 versions are available for presale in China:
Version
Sitting arrangement
Price
Base
5 seats
339,900 yuan
Pro
6 seats
349,900 yuan
Max
6 seats
379,900 yuan
Max+
6 seats
429,900 yuan
Launch Edition, 1,000 units
6 seats
459,900 yuan, or 449,900 yuan after order confirmation
The cabin is designed for premium Chinese customers. It features a large screen, captain chairs in the second row with heating, ventilation, and massage functions, tray tables, a refrigerator, and ambient LED lighting. It’s somewhat like a combination of a Land Rover and an Aito M9, just in a more boxy, retro design.
610 kW, CATL 60.3 kWh battery, and 20-80% charging in 12 minutes
Technically, this is one of the most interesting debuts from China in recent weeks. The Freelander 8 features an EREV system with a 1.5 turbo gasoline engine acting as a range extender and two electric motors. The total system power is 610 kW, or about 818 horsepower, with a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 4.6 seconds.
The power comes from a CATL battery with a capacity of 60.3 kWh, which, according to China’s CLTC standard, is supposed to provide a range of 310 km on electric power alone. This sounds good on paper, but CLTC is clearly more optimistic than Europe’s WLTP standard, not to mention real-world highway driving conditions.
The car is built on the 800 V 6C architecture. The manufacturer claims a 20-80 percent charge time of 12 minutes. If this figure holds up beyond the presentation slides, it would be at the top tier. The question is what the peak power is and how long the car can maintain it.
This is complemented by a pneumatic suspension with two chambers, a front mechanical differential lock, and the i-ATS off-road system tuned in collaboration with Huawei. Paper promises everything, but the package is ambitious.
Huawei ADS 5 comes standard, with availability outside China coming by the end of the year.
Every version comes equipped with Huawei Qiankun ADS 5 driver assistance system out of the box. The car is also one of the first models to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 8397 automotive chip with 320 TOPS of computing power. The sensor suite includes an 896-channel LiDAR and a rear semiconductor dToF LiDAR, along with radar and cameras.
Here too, one needs to stay calm. ADS 5 won’t turn this car into a fully autonomous vehicle, and Chinese ADAS features usually face cuts due to homologation requirements, maps, and local regulations when introduced in Europe.
The first production unit rolled off the line in Changshu on July 30, with the factory receiving an additional 3 billion yuan in investment for a new brand. The first export version is expected to reach the Middle East between the end of this year and the beginning of next. Europe seems like the logical next market, as the car is left-hand drive and targets the premium segment where German brands have dominated for years.
If the Freelander 8 truly makes its way to Europe with such specifications and without an absurd price, it could cause quite a stir. The question is how many of those 10,000 orders will actually be fulfilled and whether JLR can sell retro designs to Chinese consumers better than its traditional premium models.
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