Land Rover on Thursday confirmed that a production version of its LRX concept will be built. The new car will debut next year.

Designed and engineered at Land Rover's Gaydon facility, the new Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle the company has ever produced.

The new car will be built at the multi award-winning plant in Halewood, on Merseyside, subject to quality and productivity agreements, and will be sold in over 100 countries around the world.

Phil Popham, managing director of Land Rover said: "The production of a small Range Rover model is excellent news for our employees, dealers and customers. It is a demonstration of our commitment to investing for the future, to continue to deliver relevant vehicles for our customers, with the outstanding breadth of capability for which we are world-renowned."

He added that feedback from customer research also fully supported the belief that a production version of the LRX Concept would further raise the desirability of the brand and "absolutely meet" expectations.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover design director, said the new vehicle will be a natural extension to the Range Rover line-up, complementing the existing models and helping to define a new segment. It will be true to the concept and have many recognisable Range Rover design cues, including the signature clamshell bonnet, the floating roof and the solid 'wheel-at-each-corner' stance.

More details on the new small Range Rover will be released next year.