A near production ready fifth-generation Land Rover Discovery has been spied in the UK ahead of the new 4×4’s expected reveal later this year.

A NEAR PRODUCTION READY Land Rover Discovery (fifth-generation) has been spotted in the town of Leamington Spa near Jaguar Land Rover’s headquarters at Gaydon in the UK. A check of its registration plate by UK automotive publications revealed it is powered by a 2.0-litre diesel engine; most likely the group’s Ingenium diesel which runs in both Discovery Sport, XE and F-Pace.

While plenty of spy shots of the new Discovery have surfaced online, including images of a test mule running around the Nurburgring racetrack in Germany, this image gives us our best-ever look at the thing with only light camouflage.

The new model will be built on the same platform as the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport which has seen those models shed a huge amount of weight. So, expect the next generation Discovery to come in under the current 2622kg kerb weight.

While there are some Discovery owners who might look at the spy photo and lament the boxy shape of the current model, but Land Rover’s design boss, Gerry McGovern has said, in numerous interviews that while the new Discovery will borrow elements from other new Land Rovers it will still retain an air of Discovery. He said that he had “no desire to upset traditionalists; the trick is to bring them with you”.

And that the new Discovery would become “more Range Rover-like. But we need to get the balance right”. And for traditionalists, he said that the Discovery would always have a stepped roof to accomodate seven people in stadium-style seating, a visible pillar in the side to break up the mass of the thing and “optimum proportions to maximise the volume inside the car”.

In terms of technology, we’ve seen the 2017 Range Rover debut quite a lot of new technology, like its Tow Assist and Low Traction Control system and we’d expect these and other features to make their way onto new Discovery.

The engine range is expected to include updated versions of the current car’s 3.0-litre SDV6 diesel engine, with the introduction of a smaller 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel Ingenium engine. This one will be interesting to see how it performs in the heavy Discovery; we sampled it in the Jaguar F-Pace which weighs in at around 1600kg and found it to be a little underwhelming, but in the Evoque, which is much lighter, and the Jaguar XE, it felt very strong.

The new Discovery is expected to be launched later this year, so, stay tuned for more information.