Announce

Freelander EV SUV Survives -30°C Winter Tests — Huawei LiDAR, CATL 6C Charging, and $439M Factory Confirmed

April 15, 2026

The Freelander name is back — and this time, it is electric, independently branded, and backed by Chery and Jaguar Land Rover money.

Before the production model reaches buyers, engineers flew the new Freelander SUV to Sweden and ran it through cold-weather testing at -30°C. The point was direct: prove that an off-road EV can operate in conditions that would strand lesser vehicles. It did.

Design: Boxy on Purpose

The production SUV closely mirrors the Concept 97 shown earlier this year. The silhouette is deliberately upright and square — a clear visual callback to classic Land Rover proportions rather than the rounded crossover shapes that dominate the current EV market. The styling is a brand decision as much as an engineering one. Freelander is betting that buyers want something that looks like it means business off-road.

iMax Architecture: One Platform, Two Powertrains

Underpinning the SUV is a new architecture called iMax. It supports both pure electric and range-extended configurations — the latter using a small onboard generator to supplement the battery. That flexibility matters for a vehicle targeting buyers who want off-road capability without charging anxiety on remote terrain.

Huawei’s Most Advanced Driving System Yet

Freelander partnered with Huawei for autonomous driving, and the system it landed is the Qiankun ADS 4.1. The headline spec is a 896-channel LiDAR sensor — the highest channel count currently deployed in a production SUV. Freelander claims this makes the new model the first all-terrain SUV running hardware at this level. Whether that translates to a genuine capability advantage over existing systems from Nio, Li Auto, and Xpeng will be clearer once real-world data surfaces.

Qualcomm 8397 Chip: Three Times Faster Than Current In-Car Standard

The computing backbone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8397, which Freelander says delivers three times the processing speed of chips used in most current production vehicles. Faster compute means faster map rendering, smoother screens, and enough headroom to run autonomous driving algorithms alongside the infotainment stack without degrading either.

CATL Battery With 6C Ultra-Fast Charging

The battery pack comes from CATL and supports a 6C charging rate. At 6C, a significant charge can be added in minutes rather than hours — putting the Freelander in a small group of EVs that can realistically stop, charge, and move on without a long wait.

Off-Road Software: Huawei Yinwang’s i-ATS

The intelligent all-terrain system — called i-ATS — was developed with Huawei Yinwang. It uses software to manage wheel torque distribution across mud, rock, and sand. This is where the original Freelander’s off-road identity gets translated into an EV context: mechanical diffs replaced by algorithms, but the underlying ambition unchanged.

Factory Investment: 3 Billion Yuan, Six Models in Five Years

The Chery-JLR joint venture is committing 3 billion yuan (approximately $439 million) to upgrade a production facility in Changshu, China. The factory is planned to produce six models over five years, with a new vehicle launching roughly every six months. Brand CEO Wen Fei has positioned Freelander as a direct competitor to established luxury EV names — a claim that will get tested quickly at that launch cadence.

Sales Network: 100 Stores by End of 2026

Freelander’s retail strategy uses an asset-light dealer model. The company has already secured agreements covering more than 60 stores across 50 cities, with a target of 100 stores open before the end of 2026. Headquarters are in Shanghai.

Full specifications drop in June. The China market launch follows later this year.

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