(photo by Paul Sancya of AP)

Written by Andrew Clark in Detroit

Land Rover’s smallest ever car has made its public debut at the Detroit motor show - complete with a built-in champagne cooler in the boot for tailgate parties at Twickenham or Henley.

The three-door LRX is powered by a mixture of diesel and electricity with sufficiently low carbon emissions of just 120 grams a kilometre - low enough to be exempt from London’s congestion charge.

It is intended to appeal to a young, sporty car buyers who want a four-wheel drive vehicle suitable for urban use without environmental guilt.

The tailgate has integrated glass holders. A food chiller and a wine cooler are concealed in the floor of the boot. Designers say these features are conceived for people who like to hold parties in car parks at sporting events.

“It feels like a hugely exciting direction for us to take,” said Land Rover’s managing director Phil Popham. “The LRX has technology to address the needs of a changing world.”

Created at Land Rover’s engineering centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire, the LRX is an early-stage concept vehicle and is unlikely to be manufactured in its present form, although the carmaker is keen to display the ideas in the design to judge market reaction. The interior contains organic vegetable-tanned leather and reconstituted felt, perceived as more sustainable than traditional materials.

Land Rover’s owner, Ford, is in the process of selling the firm alongside sister brand Jaguar. India’s Tata Group is the frontrunner to buy the two manufacturers.

Senior executives stressed Land Rover’s financial health - Popham said the brand was “strongly in profit at the moment”.

In 2007, Land Rover’s global sales rose 18% to 226,000 vehicles. In America, sales rose 4.5% and there was particularly strong demand from emerging markets - Chinese sales jumped 150% and shipments of vehicles to Russia almost doubled.

Ford is selling the marques as part of a slim-down of its portfolio after losing $12.6bn (£6.41bn) globally in 2006. Lewis Booth, the chairman of Ford Europe, said the sale to Tata was in the best interest of the brands and employees.

“The Land Rover Jaguar decision is more about Ford than about Jaguar and Land Rover,” Booth said. “I found it very important that having found a plan for them, that they could realize that plan in the future. We can’t guarantee it at Ford because of our other financial pressures.”

(this article was taken from The Guardian)

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 9:30 am and is filed under car shows, land rover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.