(September 24, 2009) Land Rover has confirmed today that a production version of its exciting LRX concept car will be built.  The new car will debut next year and join the Range Rover line-up in 2011. Designed and engineered at Land Rover's state of the art Gaydon facility, the new Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle the company has ever produced.

The new car will be built at the multi award-winning plant in Halewood, on Merseyside, subject to quality and productivity agreements and will be sold in over 100 countries around the world.

Phil Popham, managing director of Land Rover said: “The production of a small Range Rover model is excellent news for our employees, dealers and customers. It is a demonstration of our commitment to investing for the future, to continue to deliver relevant vehicles for our customers, with the outstanding breadth of capability for which we are world-renowned."

"Feedback from our customer research also fully supports our belief that a production version of the LRX Concept would further raise the desirability of our brand and absolutely meet their expectations." Phil added.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover design director said "The new vehicle will be a natural extension to the Range Rover line-up, complementing the existing models and helping to define a new segment. It will be true to the concept and have many recognisable Range Rover design cues including the signature clamshell bonnet, the floating roof and the solid 'wheel-at-each-corner' stance."

Meanwhile, AutoWeek reports that Land Rover owner Tata Motors said that it will close one of the three Jaguar-Land Rover assembly plants in England by 2014 to cut costs. The plants at risk are in Castle Bromwich, which makes Jaguars, and in Solihull, which makes Land Rover models. Both are in central England. Tata said it will choose which plant to close within the next 18 months.

The global economic crisis has taken a toll on Jaguar and Land Rover. Tata said combined sales of the two brands dropped 52 percent in its first fiscal quarter. Jaguar Land Rover also posted a loss of $100 million in the fiscal quarter.

The company said the economic collapse and the resulting drop in new-car sales meant that the Jaguar and Land Rover factories were running at less than 60 percent of capacity. Over the past 12 months, the unit has cut production by more than 100,000 units, cut 2,500 jobs and frozen pay.