Range Rover Jr.

Consolidating production of the Jaguar X-Type and the next-generation Land Rover Freelander heralds the arrival of “a baby Range Rover,” Ward's learns.

But the new vehicle won't mitigate 1,100 job losses at Land Rover's Solihull Assembly Plant in West Midlands, U.K., says Amicus, the union representing affected workers.

Amicus resents Land Rover's announcement that it will build the next-generation Freelander beside the Jaguar X-Type at Jaguar's Halewood Assembly Plant in 2006.

Land Rover agrees to establish a £4 million ($6.4 million) fund to cover relocation costs for affected workers, but Amicus predicts few takers because Solihull is about 100 miles (160 km) from Merseyside, Halewood's location.

Land Rover expended considerable effort to train Solihull's work force in preparation for the introduction of its redesigned Range Rover.

Expect the same diligence when Land Rover launches what sources in the U.K. tell Ward's is a baby Range Rover.

“A better way to describe it, is an X5-fighter,” says Paul Ferraiolo, Land Rover North America's product planning manager, referring to BMW AG's midsize luxury cross/utility vehicle.

Reluctant even to confirm the vehicle's presence in Land Rover's pipeline, Ferraiolo is mum on timing. But sources tell Ward's the new vehicle could debut as early as next year — the beneficiary of a £200 million ($319.5 million) investment in Solihull that also portends progress for Ford Motor Co.'s flexible-manufacturing agenda and its platform-reduction strategy.

Land Rover says Solihull will accommodate “a new Land Rover multi-vehicle platform,” and “concentrate on production of the company's larger premium and specialist 4×4 vehicles.”