Freelander has confirmed that its new SUV will be coming to the UK. A representative of the new brand that’s a joint venture between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover in China said that engineers are working on a right hand drive version of the car.

The concept made its first public appearance at the Beijing show, with the production version of the car set to be revealed as early as the end of June. Freelander said that the car would go on sale in China initially, then made available internationally within months.

I managed to grab a look at the concept at the Beijing show where it was squirrelled away on the Huawei stand. It’s much bigger than it initially looked in pictures, certainly bigger than the 1997 car that the concept is named after. Which perhaps leaves room for a smaller electric crossover below whatever this concept car turns out to be in when it goes on sale later this year.

The large tyres and hulking bonnet are the immediate takeaways from the Concept 97 study – dark windows disguise the interior of the car, but I shoved my phone up against the window to get a glimpse of the dashboard that’s dominated by a large screen and windscreen-wrapping digital display. It's all in line with the digital render we've seen of the interior, though the infotainment screen looks bigger in person. 

Animated headlight graphics up front add a bit of concept car whimsy, but we’ll see whether these will make their way successfully to the production version of the car. The glass rear screen has been replaced with fabric on the five-door model on display in China, though we're not sure what practical purpose Freelander has in mind for that. 

The Freelander spokesperson at the show said that the company was having to work fast because of the pace of competition in the Chinese market. Where established western carmakers take four or five years to develop a new car, Chinese manufacturers have whittled that down to one or two years of intensive development.

Test versions of the new Freelander have already been deployed around China and Europe to get miles on the new car before it goes on sale.