The Land Rover Discovery Sport Has A New Face And Fresh Tech

It’s facelift time for the Land Rover Discovery Sport, and the big story here isn’t that it now looks much more like the full-size Disco. Minus the weird off-set rear number plate. No - the main thing to report is much of the range has gone mild hybrid.

The only non-electrified Discovery Sport is the entry-level, front-wheel drive and manual D150, whose 2.0-litre inline-four diesel engine produces 148bhp and 280lb ft.

The rest all feature 48-volt hybrid systems based around a starter generator and a small under-floor battery pack. If you’re travelling below 11mph and braking, the engine will shut down. Energy is harvested as you decelerate, stored in the battery ready to be re-deployed when you accelerate again.

The system can be paired with an inline-four diesel engine in either a 148bhp, 178bhp, 237bhp state of tune. There are a couple of petrols too: one producing 197bhp, and the other 246bhp. All of the mild hybrid Discovery Sports use the same nine-speed automatic gearbox and are all-wheel drive.

To go with the new bumpers, light clusters and grille on the outside, Land Rover has also tweaked the inside of the car. In the cabin, you’ll find a ‘Touch Pro’ infotainment system, new seats for all three rows, and more places to store things. As before, you’ll be able to fit up to seven people in the Discovery Sport, despite the reasonably compact exterior dimensions.

As a Land Rover, it - of course - has to handle the rough stuff. Sure enough, there’s a maximum wading depth of 600mm, a redeveloped ‘Active Driveline’, and the new ‘Terrain Response 2’ system that adjusts the Disco Sport’s torque delivery as necessary. You can even get a ‘transparent’ bonnet via the ClearSight Ground View feature, which takes a camera feed from under the car and projects it onto the windscreen.

The facelifted Discovery Sport is available to order now in Sport, S, SE, HSE and R-Dynamic trims, with prices kicking off at £31,575.