Land Rover Discovery Sport production to cease by end of 2026

The Land Rover Discovery Sport will soon ride off into the sunset, and it won't be directly replaced.

A spokesperson for JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) told Autocar: “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.”

The Discovery Sport remains available in Australia according to Land Rover's website, but it has already been discontinued in some European countries.

This is likely due to phase three of the EU's GSR2 (General Safety Regulation) taking effect at the beginning of July, which mandates the fitment of an alcohol interlocking, emergency lane keeping, event data recorder, and drive drowsiness and attention warning systems.

While other models Land Rover models have been updated to meet GSR2 phase three, the Discovery Sport has not. 

The Discovery Sport is the automaker's oldest model, and went into production in 2014 as, effectively, a replacement for the Freelander. As part of its 2019 facelift, it gained a new interior, and mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid drivetrains.

Under the skin the seven-seat capable Discovery Sport rides on the company's Premium Transverse Architecture (PTA), which traces its roots back to Ford's EUCD platform from the mid-2000s and which underpinned the contemporary Ford Mondeo, S-Max and Galaxy, as well as various Volvo models.

PTA currently also serves as the basis of the lower, shorter Range Rover Evoque, but that model is expected to remain in production for a little while yet. 

Reports indicate there won't be a direct replacement for the Discovery Sport. Instead JLR is working on a new Defender Sport model to function as the company's entry-level model.

The Discovery was once one of JLR's best selling models, notching up 122,000 sales globally in 2016, its first full year on sale. Last year it didn't even manage a tenth of that number.

Locally sales reached their peak in 2017 when 4547 were sold. Last year, just 412 were sold. For reference, the closely related Range Rover Evoque fared little better with 614 units shifted.

MORE: Explore the Land Rover Discovery Sport showroom