Land Rover Freelander 2 facelift on the cards

The Range-Rover Evoque may have been a stunning sales success, but the company hasn’t forgotten about its entry-level variant, the Freelander-2. Our friends from AutoExpress recently spotted a mildly face-lifted versionof the SUV, which is likely to be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show later this year. Following the Freelander-2’s first facelift a couple of months ago, the second update is rather mild and doesn’t look very different to the current car.

Judging from these spy-shotsthe car now gets a new set of headlamps, which in this picture are highly disguised.  The front grille has also been worked with and is now surrounded by a black-cladding. The Bumper however remains untouched, because of which it is hard to distinguish the facelift to the current model.

The side-profile of the car too is identical, apart from the new set of alloy wheels that the test-mule carried.The LR-2 badging may confuse you, but that’s what the Freelanderis called in North America.

At the rear, the story remains the same as the changes are minute. Despite the camouflaging, you can clearly see the Range-Rover inspired LED tail-lamps. Unlike the current car, the test-mule didn’t carry a rear-spoiler and hence we are not yet sure if this change will be carried over to the production version.

On the inside, Land Rover may make some changes to the equipment levels. However, since there aren’t any images to demonstrate it, we’ll have to wait till the facelift gets into production. Under the bonnet, the Freelander will be powered by the same 2.2-litre diesel engine that we have on the current model. Addition of a new engine to the line-up is uncertain; however modifications to the current motor are sure to enhance efficiency.

In recent times, Land Rover has been facing stiff competition from its counterparts. Both Audi and Volvo have introduced cost-down variants of the Q5 and the XC60 respectively. With this, the timing of this facelift is perfect and we expect JLR (Jaguar-Land Rover) to drop the new Freelander-2 in the Indian market soon after its overseas debut.