Land Rover Discovery Sport swaps buttons for bigger touchscreen
Crossover ditches physical controls for Range Rover's 11.4in touchscreen; on sale now from £44,790
The Land Rover Discovery Sport has been updated for 2023 with a sleek new cabin and a raft of technology upgrades.
The headline change for the updated SUV is a totally revised dashboard that ditches physical controls and ushers in a new-look, larger touchscreen familiar from the latest Range Rover models.
The outgoing Discovery Sport features a haptic climate control panel under the dash, with rotary dials for temperature selection and fan speed, but this has been removed to free up a cavernous central storage cubby, complete with a new wireless phone charger. All core functions are now hosted in the 11.4in curved touchscreen, which runs the latest generation of JLR's Pivi Pro interface.
A suite of 'permanently accessible' sidebars ensure that access to these commonly used functions – as well as media, navigation and volume settings – is still easy on the move, and JLR says users can access "up to 90% of tasks within two taps from the home screen".
Meanwhile, Amazon Alexa voice control, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are all now equipped as standard "for the ultimate connectivity", and the instrument cluster is now digital across the line-up.
Also introduced as part of the upgrades are a pair of USB-C chargers in the front and middle rows, and cars specified with seven seats get separate climate control functions for the rearmost row.
Mechanically, the powertrain line-up remains largely unchanged, but revised battery chemistry for the P300e plug-in hybrid boosts JLR's claimed 'real-world' electric driving range to 29 miles - enough, it says, to cover 90% of daily driving with the engine off.
The WLTP-certified EV range, however, is slightly down on the pre-facelift car, from 43 miles to 38 miles. But DC fast charging is equipped as standard to give the 14.9kWh battery a 0-80% top-up in as little as 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, the four-cylinder P250 petrol and D200 diesel engines are carried over, both with 48V mild-hybrid hardware as standard, but the entry-level P200 and D200 have been phased out.
Prices for the upgraded car, available to order now, start at £44,790. JLR has not said when deliveries will start, but production of the Discovery Sport and its mainstream siblings – the Range Rover Evoque, Jaguar XE, Jaguar XF and Jaguar E-Pace – remains hampered by the ongoing semiconductor supply shortage, which has prompted the company to focus on its more profitable product lines.
JLR bosses say production of these cars will be scaled up when it can get "confidence of supply", but output will be limited for the next few months.