The Freelander Is Back And Weighs The Same As A House
After a hiatus of 11 years, the Freelander is back, but not as a Land Rover nor as a singular model. Freelander is now its own brand, thanks to a partnership between Jaguar Land Rover and the Chinese car giant, Chery - the parent company of Omoda and Jaecoo.
Heading up the Freelander brand is the Freelander 8, which is a very large SUV, coming in three flavours - fully-electric, a range-extender and a plug-in hybrid version.
According to recent information coming from China, the plug-in version of the Freelander 8 has a whopping kerb weight of 2980kg and a gross vehicle weight of 3495kg. For reference, a Range Rover P550e (PHEV) has a kerb weight of 2810kg and a gross weight of 3450kg. However, the Freelander 8 is much bigger, coming in at 5.1 metres. In short, it just misses out on being classed as a 3.5 ton commercial vehicle.
The Freelander 8’s design is meant to mimic the original Freelander, with the most notable features being the front end and the slanted bar running through the rear side window, between the C and D pillars. Plus, there are the alloys that are clearly inspired by the original three-spokes. Admittedly though, it’s quite a handsome-looking thing.
Inside, the Freelander 8 features an interior that looks like every other new car on sale in 2026, despite being designed by Land Rover. A display spans the width of the dashboard, with a central infotainment screen, and weirdly, a row of physical buttons - this is unusual in a Chinese car. There’s room for six too, with the middle row passengers being treated to captain's seats.
No word on pricing or even if it’s coming to the UK yet, but it’s interesting to see how the Freelander brand is being positioned. According to what we’ve managed to find, Freelander will operate in the ‘premium’ space - we assume this will be against traditional premium brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Audi, while going up against China’s Denza, Zeekr and Xpeng brands.
However, in the UK, Jaecoo has managed to get the image of being the ‘Temu Range Rover’ due to their 5 and 7 models looking like cheap Evoques, and being as reliable as a cheap Evoque. Will Freelander get the same reputation if they go on sale in the UK? Guess we’ll find out if they come over here.