Land Rover Discovery Sport axed at the end of 2026
Land Rover is ditching its cheapest model before the end of the year.
Production of the Discovery Sport SUV – which costs from just over £50,000 and is built in Halewood – will cease in December, a JLR (formerly Jaguar Land Rover) spokesperson confirms.
The smallest Land Rover has been on sale since 2015.
While it has received a number of model updates in that time, it has remained largely unchanged for 11 years, making it one of the longest-running models sold in the UK.
But the introduction of more stringent EU safety regulations – and the Merseyside factory being retooled for electric car outputs – has effectively lowered the curtain on the Disco Sport.
It will depart the market with a somewhat chequered reliability reputation; recently, it was named among the 10 used models most likely to suffer dependability issues.
Its exit comes as JLR ramps up its electrified efforts later this year with the unveiling of a new Range Rover Electric and Range Rover Sport Electric, as well as Jaguar’s controversial £120,000 Type 01 EV.
Last week, Range Rover also confirmed it will add an electric GT to its ranks next year.
Driving in the sunset: Production of the Land Rover Discovery Sport SUV – which costs from just over £50,000 – will cease in December
A JLR spokesperson told the Daily Mail and This is Money: ‘Discovery Sport production will end in December 2026, in line with normal product lifecycles.
‘As part of this transition, there will be a managed sunset of manufacturing ahead of this date for certain markets.’
They added that dealers will continue to take orders over the coming months and new Discovery Sports will likely remain in stock in the first half of 2027.
That said, order books have already closed in some major European markets, with drivers in France, Germany and Spain no longer able to place factory orders.
Autocar says the disappearance of the Discovery Sport now makes the Volvo XC90 the UK’s ‘oldest car’, in that it has been on sale in its current generation for the longest period (since 2015).
Confirmation of the Land Rover’s exit comes as the EU introduces its updated General Safety Regulation 2 (GSR2) ruleset, which mandates several safety features that are not fitted to the SUV.
These include Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Emergency Lane Keeping Systems (ELKS).
While JLR has updated its other models in line with the new rules, the Discovery Sport’s age means it would require a wholesale refresh.
The Halewood factory is also currently being retooled for electric vehicle outputs, including the manufacturing of the new Range Rover GT.
The Discovery Sport arrived in 2015 as the direct replacement for the Freelander – a name that, coincidentally, is due to return to UK showrooms shortly
The Discovery Sport is produced in Halewood, Merseyside. The factory is transitioning into an all-electric production facility to build the next-generation cars, including the Range Rover GT
Disco Sport’s dwindling popularity and reliability woes
Its omission from showrooms comes as its popularity has dwindled significantly in recent years.
In 2016 – the car’s first full year on sale – it was JLR’s best-performing model, with 122,460 global sales. But by 2025, it had dropped to the bottom of the order books, with fewer than 12,200 units registered worldwide.
Across its lifecycle, the brand has sold more than half a million examples.
The Range Rover Evoque, now in its second generation, will continue to be the cheapest entry point into JLR ownership, with prices for the compact SUV starting from £44,430.
In May, we revealed that the Discovery Sport had been ranked the eighth most troublesome second-hand car in Warrantywise’s annual Reliability Index.
Costly problems tend to occur when the Discovery Sport reaches 7.3 years of age and 73,368 miles, the extended warranty provider said.
Average repair requests via warranty claims over the last three years have totalled £2,002, with the largest individual claim reaching an eye-watering £44,401.
Yet the Disco Sport was an incredibly capable offroader – and proved to be a remarkable tow vehicle.
In a 2016 stunt commissioned by JLR, a Discovery Sport hauled a 100-tonne train – nearly sixty times its own weight and equivalent to that of a Boeing-757 aeroplane – along six miles of railway line.
It towed three luxury train carriages over the 85ft high bridge above the River Rhine in northern Switzerland using a standard vehicle fitted with only with rail guidance wheels to keep it on track.
The Discovery Sport became the successor to the Land Rover Freelander in 2015, after the latter was discontinued the previous year.
However, the Freelander name is due to return to UK roads shortly as part of JLR’s long-running partnership with Chinese carmaker Chery.
This will see the arrival of a new brand under the Freelander name that specialises in SUV models designed with the support of the British company – now under Tata’s Indian ownership – but built in China.
The first model will be the Freelander 8 – an enormous family SUV that looks remarkably like the current Defender and uses Chery’s plug-in hybrid drivetrains.
