JLR look to Trademark ‘Road Rover’ as Jaguar Land Rover lines continue to blur

Jaguar Land Rover are looking to trademark ‘Road Rover’ as they plan a new high-riding road car to extend the Range Rover brand.

The Land Rover bit of JLR has been a big success for Tata since they took Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, but the Jaguar bit of the equation really hasn’t turned out the way Tata hoped.

Despite their best efforts, and some very good cars, Jaguar is as far away from being the British BMW as ever, and its sales are only being propped up by the success of cars that really capitalise on Land Rover’s territory – like the Jaguar F-Pace and new I-Pace.

So it seems JLR are now planning to deliver cars from Land Rover which offer the saloon car abilities of a Jaguar, but with a bit of off-road prowess thrown in to the equation; perhaps a Land Rover take on ‘All Road’.

Rumours have been rife for a while that a more road-focused range of Range Rovers are in the offing, and that looks to be moving towards reality with a trademark application for ‘Road Rover’ by JLR (perhaps Land Rover aren’t brave enough to use the ‘Rover’ brand they already own?).

The Range Rover brand is already heading in to road-focused territory with the new Velar, but the Road Rover, or at least the first Road Rover, is expected to be a high-riding, Shooting Brake take on the next-generation Jaguar XJ, complete with an electric powertrain and aiming in to Mercedes S-Class territory. Which sounds rather a lot like the ethos behind the new Aston Martin DBX.

It looks like the first Road Rover will arrive by 2020, so we should get our first proper look at exactly what Land Rover are planning at some point next year.

We’re sure it all makes good business sense to capitalise on the success of Range Rover with a range of high-riding cars – even if it feels like JLR is giving up on Jaguar – but wouldn’t it have been better to launch them as a new luxury brand under the ‘Rover’ banner?

Or maybe the Rover is a brand is too tainted to use?