New York 2014: New Land Rover Discovery family previewed

Land Rover has released a few more teaser images of the upcoming Discovery Vision Concept, which will be revealed at the New York motor show on April 16.

The company says that the new car is a “bold new concept that will showcase Land Rover’s design vision for a new family of Discovery vehicles.”

Described as “premium leisure SUVs”, the company has stated that the new Discovery line-up will be “built on Land Rover’s key principles of emotive design, unrivalled capability and ultimate versatility, taken to new levels using customer-focused advanced technologies.”

Even at this stage of the reveal process, it is clear that the design language established with the Discovery 3 and 4 has been completely abandoned. These pictures of the concept's interior show a much more sophisticated approach, with what appears to be a touchscreen centre console and minimalistic controls and lots of jewel-like detailing, right down to the faceting of the sides of the rotary controller. The accent on luxury seems to extend to individually-reclining seats both front and rear.

Shots of the exterior show that the Discovery family will have much slicker, more aerodynamic lines than the current model. The first model to use this new look will be the Freelander replacement, which is expected to appear in showroom guise before the end of the year.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s design boss and chief creative officer, said that the Discovery has been “pivotal in helping to build the foundations of the Land Rover brand. It is admired all over the world and loved by its strong customer base. We have created the Vision Concept to debut a new, compelling, relevant design direction that connects on an emotional level with customers of today and tomorrow".