Deluge of Details: New Land Rover Defender Leaks Have Emerged

A batch of new leaks on the Land Rover Defender have indicated that the model will come in a trio of body styles, one of which is supposed to seat eight, and offer quite a bit of variance between trims.

Defender “leaks” are nothing new; the manufacturer has been parsing out camouflaged body shots for months. While this marketing strategy left us feeling burnt out on Toyota’s Supra prior to its debut, JLR has exercised a bit more restraint, encouraging some enthusiast-based espionage — which is far more fun.

The details come to us via the Discovery focused, Land Rover fan site DISCO4 and include a bevy of internal documents presumably intended for a corporate presentation. They stipulate the three-door Defender 90 will have five and six-seat versions and arrive in March of 2020. At 4,323 mm (170.1 inches), it’s significantly longer than the previous generation. But it’s also shorter, at 1,927 mm (75.8 inches), and wider, at 1,999 mm (78.7 inches), with a wheelbase of 2,587 mm (102 inches).

Meanwhile, the Defender 110 and 130 will share the majority of their dimensions. The five-door 110 will be flexible enough to configured for five, six and seven passengers. Its length comes in at 4,758 mm (187.3 inches), with height coming in at 1,916 (75.4 inches), girth is sitting at 1,999 mm (78.7 inches), and a wheelbase of 3,022 mm (118.9 inches). It’ll be the first of the three to launch, showing up in October of this year.

All of those proportions are identical on the Defender 130, save for length — which is 5,100 mm (200.7 inches) to accommodate for eight seats. The documents state that it’s scheduled to appear in August of next year as a 2021 model-year vehicle.

While we like the classic, inch-based naming strategy for Defender models, we can’t help but notice they’re all meaningless due to the upscaled wheelbases. But we’re not going to complain more than we just did. After all, it’s not the first time something like this has happened within the industry… or the twelfth.

Powertrain offerings included in the documents are likely incomplete; we keep hearing rumors about a BEV. But it does show the 90 and 110 with three gasoline engines and an identical number of diesels — each with automatic trannys and all-wheel drive. The base gasoline engine will be the P300, followed by the P400 and P400e plug-in hybrid. The diesels will be the D200, D240, and D300.

Sadly, the resolution of that particular document is absolutely terrible and forces us to get creative with the claimed power specifications. But the gasoline engines appear to be operating between 295 and 394 hp, with torque spanning from 295 to 476 lb-ft. Diesel models will be rocking between 197 and 295 hp with torque spread across 317 and 480 foot-pounds. Of course, this is all dependent upon the validity of the documents, which engine you buy, and how good your author’s beady little eyes are.

The Defender’s claimed 0-100 kph were slightly easier to decipher, with the fastest diesel (the D300) taking 7.4 seconds. Gas-burning units were quicker, with the base P300 hitting the mark in 7.3 seconds. The P400 appears to be capable of doing the same in 5.9 seconds, regardless of whether or not it’s the hybrid.

One of the slides also does a summary of the trim levels. Those include Standard, S, SE, HSE, and X. The differences here include fancier lamps, nicer seats, better speakers, and more driver assistance features the closer you get to the X trim. But Automotive News also reported that Defender will have four personalization lines with different accessories and features catering to a customer’s lifestyle. Confirmed by the manufacturer, those will be:

Country for weekends in the countryside.

Adventure with features making it something like an SUV “grand tourer.”

Urban for cities and the suburbs. It is expected that this option will be popular for the three-door 90 model.

Explorer with features that make it a “go anywhere” off roader.

The only other noteworthy leak is an image, shared on Instagram over the weekend, that shows an unfinished production version of the Defender. Unfortunately, Land Rover has gently disavowed it. “Land Rover is aware of an unofficial image in circulation. Through the development of any new vehicle many design options are considered,” a spokesperson informed Road and Track. “We will not comment any further at this time. Land Rover does not comment on future product plans.”

Taking Rover’s claims into account, it still looks pretty legit to us. If this is a fake, someone put a decent amount of effort behind it.

[Images: Jaguar Land Rover]