LR Design Boss Blames 'Wrong' Number Plates For Discovery's Odd Rear

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s Design Director and Chief Creative Officer, has at last admitted there’s a problem with the rear-end of the new Discovery. A problem with the kind of number plates being fitted. Wait, what?

That’s right, despite conceding in an interview with Auto Express that the asymmetrical design of the Discovery’s rear-end has proved controversial, McGovern seemed to pin the blame mostly on the type of number plates being fitted to the vehicles, rather than the offset placement.

“You know what part of the problem is with that offset plate? It depends on what number plate you put on it. And it was designed for a slimmer number plate,” he said. Many dealers in the UK are fitting larger plates with the blue GB/EU emblem to one side, something which he says “doesn’t quite fit.”

Well, we fired up Photoshop and cooked up this comparison image, so you can judge for yourselves. And to us it looks…broadly the same, actually - although feel free to add your thoughts in the comments if we’ve missed something compelling.

McGovern is keen to point out that the offset plate is all about the new car “tipping its hat to the Discoveries of the past,” which we get - the only trouble is, it was offset on those old Discos for a practical reason, with the other side of the tailgate taken up by a dirty great spare wheel.

Whatever kind of number plates the dealers are told to fit, we suspect the furore over the back end will continue. Not that this seems to be stopping Land Rover shifting the things: despite only going on sale in April, over 20,000 have been sold already.