1.) 2013 Land Rover Range Rover 'The Prestige'
An extremely late entrance, we barely knew anything about the latest Range Rover SUV until earlier this month.The latest in a prestigious lineage, the Range Rover has long been regarded as one of the finest vehicles, car or truck, ever made. For 2013, the new Range Rover is taking luxury, engineering, and all-road capability to a whole new level.Evoking high levels of luxury, its art deco interior is complete with polished aluminum, gloss piano black trims, and acres of leather surfaces.However, the biggest change in the new Range Rover is its new aluminum extensive architecture. Thanks to the lightweight material, the new generation Range Rover has lost as much as 850 pounds, a significant 14 percent reduction, from its outgoing model.Thanks to the new chassis, the 2013 Range Rover boasts confidence-inspiring driving behavior that makes the 5,137 pound behemoth actually feel light footed. Combined with a supercharged V8 engine that offers 510-hp, the enormous house on wheels accelerates from 0-to-60 mph in just 5.1 seconds and all the way to a top speed of 140-hp. Not even Hurricane Sandy can propel your house as quickly (too soon?). Land Rover

Land Rover had already established its three pillars of support decades ago-- the no-nonsense Defender, the practical Discovery (LR4), and the premium luxury Range Rover flagship. Now, Land Rover is looking to expand upon its fundamentals and create a whole new line-up of up to 16 new models under the categories: leisure, utility, and luxury.

According to Autocar during an interview with Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern, the new Land Rover project will extend as long as 2020 and will feature multiple new models that represent each of the three categories. First, the utility category will feature approximately five new models that will be based on the highly anticipated next-generation Defender SUV which is scheduled to launch in 2015. The least expensive offerings in the model portfolio, utility models will apply design cues taken from the well received DC100 concept and will include various models including five-seat, seven-seat, and even pickup truck variants.

Next, the leisure category will focus on the next-generation Land Rover LR2 and LR4. The LR2 may offer a compact version along with a five- and seven-seat version as well. In addition, Land Rover will redesign the LR4, an important model slated to compete with BMW X5 and the Mercedes-Benz M Class crossover.

Finally, Land Rover will be upping its luxury ante for its last category. The Range Rover portfolio will feature avant garde vehicles including the stunning Range Rover Evoque small premium crossover to the top-of-the-line long-wheelbase Range Rover SUV. A rumored convertible Evoque model will likely be confirmed for select markets as well.

According to Land Rover, the British automaker's ability to handle the ambitious model expansion will come down to the optimization of modular platform sharing that will be a process combined with sister brand Jaguar.

While there are currently a total of seven separate platforms between Jaguar and Land Rover, parent company Tata aims for three next-generation platforms that can effectively accomodate all the available core models in the future Jaguar Land Rover range. Once this new project is implemented, designers can better create vehicles with unique attributes around existing platforms with newfound flexibility.

What's more, modular platforms will increase production efficiency while minimizing cost at the same time, allowing customers to have access to quality vehicles at a lower price point. As the global demand for SUVs and crossovers are expected to rise year over year, Land Rover's clever new plan may by just the thing that will catapult the company into a global leader of premium SUVs and crossovers.