LAND Rover is to launch five new models as part of a major offensive to boost its share of the North American market and make it back into the black.

Chief executive Bob Dover said that in the next six years five new vehicles would be launched in the US - a huge undertaking from a company that in its 53-year history has launched only seven new vehicles.

The news means that North America will overtake the UK to become Land Rover's biggest market. Currently, Land Rover has a 0.18% share of the total North American market, selling about 30,000 vehicles last year in a market that boasts 16.5 million units. But UK sales are up 15% on last year. Dover said: 'In the future, every new Land Rover model will be engineered for the US at the very beginning of its life. Let me be clear: the US is our absolute number one priority market, worldwide.' This means that production at the Solihull factory, where all models are made, will hit the 200,000 mark.