Jaguar Land Rover unveils new sports SUV

British car maker Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday unveiled its all-new sports model as a "space-age car" that can be described as out of this world.

JLR has worked alongside the British company, Virgin, with a competition organised as part of a digital campaign for the new sports model. Four competition winners, to be announced this December, will be among the first to journey into space aboard Virgin's Galactic Spaceship.

The seven-seater Land Rover Discovery Sport will go on sale next January, with the company's production plant at Liverpool, working round-the-clock shifts to meet an expected global demand for the new sleek addition to the Land Rover family.

JLR chose Liverpool to build the new model as one of the best performing car manufacturing plants in the world.

The Liverpool plant already builds JLR's top selling model, the Range Rover Evoque, and the Land Rover Freelander2.

JLR executives are confident the Discovery Sport will prove just as popular as its Evoque.

JLR group marketing director Phil Popham said: "The new Discovery Sport is an exciting development for the Land Rover Discovery family and demonstrates our commitment to continued investment in new models and innovation."

JLR's plant director at its Liverpool factory, Richard Else, said: "Today we are operating three shifts, 24-hours a day, to meet global demand and I am confident that the team will deliver a flawless launch of this exciting new model."

Pricing for the new model in the country will start at 32,395 pounds.

JLR launched the Discovery Sport in one of its biggest-ever digital promotion campaigns. It included a competition to send four friends into space aboard Virgin's Galactic spacecraft, alongside its chairman, the British business guru, Sir Richard Branson.

The prize has been described as an incredible opportunity to win the most spectacular group journey of a lifetime.

More than 600 people have already booked U.S. dollars 250,000-a-trip tickets to become the first space holidaymakers aboard the Virgin Galactic.