The regulator-friendly replacement for the recently departed Land Rover Defender is on the way, and has already begun on-road testing, the automaker’s CEO confirms.
Speaking to Britain’s Autocar, Jaguar Land Rover boss Ralf Speth says the new Defender adopts the lightweight aluminum architecture of the fifth-generation Land Rover Discovery.
The platform and design upgrade is good news for those hoping to see the model return to North America.
Speth told Autocar that the new Defender looks “fantastic,” and will be “fairly different” than other models in the Land Rover stable when it appears in 2018.
The previous model, which traced its lineage back to the original Land Rover of 1948, was put out to pasture in January of this year. Passenger safety regulations pushed Defenders out the North American market in 1998, and European pedestrian safety regulations did the same for the overseas model. While owners loved the archaic, boxy body, which oozed utilitarian brawn, the march of time rendered it obsolete in the eyes of regulators.
Speth admits that the previous Defender is a hard act to follow, and that his company must get it right. And new Defender must have world-class off-roading capability and durability, he said. It also needs to look the part.
“There is no question of the new Defender just being an icon,” said Speth. “We are working on an authentic successor to the old Defender. The architecture will contain a lot of elements that are different (from other Land Rovers).”
A design concept, the DC100 (seen above), appeared in 2011 as a suggestion of what the new Defender could look like.
So they’ve replaced the world’s most iconic 4wd vehicle with something that looks like the illegitimate child of a Honda Element and a shoe?
…which will likely sell in numbers the original Defender never even dreamed of…
That picture is the 2011 concept, which wasn’t well-received. LR started over, which is why the new Defender wasn’t ready when the old one went out of production.
HH has got it.
Discovery if pretty good off road but fairly complex underneath. I’m not sure your going to bolt a lift on that with a few coils like the old D90.
If anything, that Defender concept they’re not using would be a good base for a Bronco. It looks American to me.
Return of the FJ Cruiser!
With none of the reliability!
And thrice the cost…
Wait, are they saying the new Defender will be unibody with independent suspension? In other words, a car?
It will probably be very similar to a Range Rover in terms of suspension setup, without the airbags in base trim.
I’m sure it will work well for what most people use off-roaders for around the world, but it may not be the best for leisure off-roading (rock crawling, mudding, cutting across highway medians).
Rovers are much more pleasant to drive on logging roads and rutted trails, compared to Wranglers and Land Cruisers. They don’t shimmy around if you hit a bump with just one wheel.
I’m sure the aluminum will work as well as cast iron for most people too, but the Defender was never a vehicle for most people. IS is not as easy to live with as a solid axle if it will experience technical terrain. You should probably slow down on those rutted roads, don’t confuse ride comfort with safety. I guess all Rovers are now being tuned as desert runners for middle eastern customers.
Where that pushrod V8 at tho….I better not see north of 15mpg down hill.
If a Renegade Trailhawk and an FJ Cruiser had a baby…
Think of the ownership profile on that offspring.
A woman in her twenties, who loves to talk about offroading and adventure but not actually do any of it – instead going to the mall to buy gear.
Currently in Tanzania safari vehicles are nearly all Toyota Land Cruisers with customized bodies. Land Rovers are considered too expensive to buy and prone to breakdowns.
Land Cruiser: Tanzanian approved.
Yep. And I just spent two weeks in one, lurching along rutted roads and up and around switchbacks with no guard rails. It did good.
Havana, mimi si kuzunguma Kiswahili.. (But I can use Google translate.)
Kufanya wewe kusema Swahili?
Ambapo ni McDonald’s?
Speak ‘Murican!
Why does this thing look so much like the late, great, Toyota Land Cruiser?
WTF? Landcruiser?
Its more akin to a short wheelbase Pajero.
As much as I liked 110 and 130s I do think this will sell initially sell in greater numbers.
Over the longer term this spells the end of the Defender.
The two strikes; US Safety regs and Euro pedestrian safety which condemned the Defender must surely limit what it’s replacement will look and perform like.
The Land Cruiser has taken the Defenders lunch money and given it a wedgy on the way out.
Quite what market segment LR will try and sell into is somewhat murky, if it’s too soft, off-roaders will scorn it, it it’s too complex it’s ticket price will be undercut by Jeep.