2020 Land Rover Defender (L663)

New Land Rover Defender goes off-roading in teaser video

Land Rover has published a fresh teaser video showing its new Defender doing a spot of off-roading, with the British brand also confirming the upcoming model will be offered in the United States. The clip follows the first teaser image released in December 2018.

Expect the new Defender to be fully revealed relatively in 2019, with sales set to start in 2020.

From what we can tell from the camouflaged prototype appearing in the video, the reimagined automotive icon will bear a suitably boxy design, although one fairly far removed from that of the original.

Indeed, the Whitley-based firm says while its next generation Defender will “preserve the historic foundation of rugged durability, versatility and capability” of the original, it will feature “a revolutionary design and the latest technologies”.

The new-generation Defender is expected to run on the automaker’s latest all-aluminium platform, ditching the original’s ladder-frame chassis. Late in 2017, Gerry McGovern, the British brand’s design director, promised the new model would retain the original’s off-road capability, but warned it wouldn’t necessarily look much like its predecessor.

While spy photographers have snapped the short-wheelbase Defender 90 and the larger five-door 110 derivative, an earlier report suggested Land Rover would also include a bakkie in the upcoming range, positioned to take on the Mercedes-Benz X-Class.

https://www.carmag.co.za/news/new-land-rover-defender-goes-off-roading-in-teaser-video/

 
Opinion: can the new Defender help turn around Jaguar Land Rover?

As JLR announces job losses, we ponder whether the revived 4x4 icon can contribute to a revival

Now, more than ever, Jaguar Land Rover could do with a major new model line, following last year’s sales slump and the news today of thousands of job losses.

According to official figures, Jaguar’s saloon range – made in Castle Bromwich – is the main issue.
In the three months from July to September last year, just 7700 XEs and 7400 XFs were sold, along with only 900 of the ageing XJ, while the F-Pace SUV is selling around 700 units a month.
That equates to just over 6000 cars per month. An annualised output of just 72,000 cars a year explains why Castle Bromwich – which got £100m in investment just two years ago – was recently on a three-day week.

More worryingly, Jaguar’s well-received F-Pace (made in Solihull) saw year-on-year sales between July and September fall by 5800, compared with the same period in 2017, to 10,300.
E-Pace sales are climbing and the I-Pace appears to be doing well, but it’s a fair bet that Jaguar’s saloon range is not about to undergo a second coming, even with the upcoming XE and XF facelifts.

The much-rumoured XJ EV is thought to be due next year but is unlikely to patch the Jaguar-shaped hole in JLR’s production plans.

Which is where the new Defender could come in. Although it’s at least a year away from the showroom, it could well underpin JLR’s future growth. According to financial documents released last autumn, the future Defender family is regarded as Land Rover’s third ‘brand pillar’ alongside the Range Rover and Discovery.

The Defender’s brief is to mix ‘off-road expertise’ with ‘practicality, functionality and durability’. A quarter of a century after Ford kicked things off with the Aston Martin DB7, the Defender is perhaps the last of a long line of great British automotive revivals on which much hope is placed. Sources have said the styling of the new car references the original model but it is a long way from a slavish copy. Prices will start at £40,000 and it’s the first model based on JLR’s all-new MLA aluminium platform. So far, so good.

But there must also be risks with an entirely new retro-facing family of vehicles, sales of which are likely to have been pencilled in for 100,000 units per year by 2022.

Firstly, the original Defender was never durable in the way that Toyota’s Land Cruiser is known for. Will serious off-road drivers be tempted to make the switch?

Will those ‘adventure-minded’ families who have been less than impressed with the Discovery 5 (currently the smallest-selling LR model) switch to the new Defender instead? And will another family of vehicles prove a step too far for a smallish car maker which already has 13 different model families?

If, as expected, Defender production is destined for JLR’s new Slovakian factory, there is likely to be a considerable row in the West Midlands. Castle Bromwich is running at less than 60% capacity, job losses look likely and, adding insult to injury, the E-Pace and I-Pace are also made abroad.

There’s no doubt JLR is on the rack and the Defender is something of a light at the end of the tunnel. But it would be a mistake to expect the last of the revived British icons to be a guaranteed fix for JLR’s problems.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/...w-defender-help-turn-around-jaguar-land-rover
 
Reborn Land Rover Defender crucial to firm’s 2019 revival

Next-generation off-road icon due for autumn reveal as Jaguar Land Rover battles falling sales

This year’s unveiling of the next-generation Land Rover Defender will crown the most crucial 12 months in Jaguar Land Rover’s history.

The Defender’s reveal is scheduled for the autumn. A whole family of vehicles is set to be shown in order to demonstrate that the company is reinventing the model for the 21st century. As recent spy pictures have shown, the intention is to create a broader appeal than ever while including many nods to the model’s utilitarian 4x4 roots.

The public unveiling of the Defender – and dealing with the inevitable backlash from purists no matter what the final production car looks like – is just one of several blockbuster events and launches JLR has in store over the next 12 months.

Land Rover’s Range Rover Evoque, the second-generation follow-up to the smash-hit original, will arrive this spring, to be followed later in the year by a heavily revised version of Land Rover’s best-selling model, the Discovery Sport. Finally the Defender will be revealed in what is turning out to be one of the most eagerly anticipated events the industry has yet seen.

Jaguar will once again try to assert its influence on the junior executive saloon market with a heavily revised XE. Changes include a significantly updated interior, in order to give the car the kind of all-round appeal it needs to compete in the segment over and above the way it drives.

Those changes will make it to the XF later in the year, while the company will also enjoy the crowning of its best-selling F-Pace range with a new SVR model. The company will also mark the first full year of sales of its first electric car, the I-Pace. In the background, development will continue of the next-generation – and all-electric – XJ, ahead of its likely reveal next year as a radical reinvention of Jaguar’s flagship as the firm continues its move towards being a more electric-focused brand.

This glut of important new launches arrives at a time of considerable belt-tightening at JLR. Since Tata bought JLR in 2008, its trajectory has been almost entirely upwards. However in recent months its sales and profits have been hit by a combination of a falling demand for diesel-engined models, the thawing of car sales in China brought on by the US-China trade war and the uncertainty around Brexit – an issue to which JLR is more exposed than perhaps any other manufacturer.

Last October the company announced a turnaround plan designed to save £2.5 billion and improve cash flow over the next 18 months, including trimming the R&D budget by £1bn. The ‘Project Charge’ plan followed two straight loss-making quarters coupled with falling sales.

The wide-ranging cost savings are being felt across the company. There have already been production shut-downs at the Castle Bromwich and Solihull plants, and the decision has been made to skip the upcoming Geneva show – an event that would cost a vast amount of money to support and attend at a time when JLR has no headline-grabbing new products to reveal.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/reborn-land-rover-defender-crucial-firm’s-2019-revival
 
New Land Rover Defender: interior leaked ahead of unveiling

Image posted on Twitter appears to show all-new 4x4's dashboard; official debut isn't expected for several months

The car in these pictures has an automatic gearbox, and it's not yet clear if manual versions will also be offered.

Specific details beyond this image are still several months away from being revealed. We do know, however, that the 2020 Defender will be offered as a long-wheelbase five-door and a short-wheelbase three-door, with a number further bodystyles, including a pick-up truck and a convertible, expected further down the line as part of a whole family of variants.

The 4x4 isn't expected to abandon its off-road credibility, despite the new technology. Engineers are said to be subjecting the Toyota Land Cruiser rival to "rigorous test extremes", including at temperatures as low as -40deg C and as high as 48deg C, as well as at altitudes up to 13,000ft.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-land-rover-defender-interior-leaked-ahead-unveiling

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Land Rover Defender Interior Leaked

Twitter accidentally gives us a look at what the new Defender could be like inside...

With the threat of Brexit and pressure on its traditional diesel-biased engine line-up, Land Rover is a brand currently under enormous strain. A rare highlight in waiting for Land Rover this year, is the looming debut of its all-new, thoroughly modernised, Defender.

Although disguised prototypes of the new Defender have been photographed, indicating a similarly boxy silhouette to Defenders of old, there has been no indication of what its cabin might look like. Until now...

. The interior of the new Defender has been thoroughly modernised...

An image of the new Defender’s steering wheel, instrument binnacle and centre-stack were accidentally posted on Twitter by U.K. designer Robert Charles. Curiously, both the image and Twitter account belonging to Charles were deleted soon after posting.

What can be gleaned from the low-contrast Twitter image? The Defender helm has changed from that traditional two-spoke design to a stylised four-spoke steering wheel, with a blend of materials and satellite controls.

The tiny Defender instrumentation dials are superseded by a TFT digital display, with an infotainment screen sitting atop the centre-stack. The floor-mounted manual shifter is gone, replaced by a console-mounted automatic transmission gear selector, flanked by two dials – presumably to control driving modes.

Although the seats, steering wheel and dash all feature what appeared to be stitched leather trim, the floor has retained a hard-wearing and pressure-hose cleanable rubber finish.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this left-hand drive configuration Defender cabin image, is the digital tachometer, which reads up to 7 000 rpm. Does this serve as a potential clue to the engine configuration for new Defender? Not many turbodiesels feature an engine speed rating all the way up to 7 000 rpm, which hedges the odds that the new Defender will be petrol powered.

We will keep you updated as soon as further details are revealed.

https://www.cars.co.za/motoring_news/land-rover-defender-interior-leaked/46134/
 
New Land Rover Defender to ‘retain some original appeal’

A high-ranking Land Rover executive has promised the all-new Defender will “retain some of the original appeal”, while becoming far “more liveable” than its forebear.

Speaking to Trucks.com, Joe Eberhardt, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover North America, suggested the upcoming new Defender would be the automaker’s most capable off-road vehicle ever, but still offer comfort and versatility.

“The new Defender will retain some of the original appeal. But it’s a vehicle you can drive every day for as long as you want as opposed to the old Defender,” Eberhardt told the US-based publication.

He furthermore suggested the fact the new model would be “more liveable” than the original would see it appeal to a wider audience. Nathan Hoyt, a spokesperson at the firm, agreed.

“The vast majority of people are living with this car day-to-day so it needs to be refined and comfortable but also live up to that Defender name,” Hoyt said.

“I’ve driven the early prototypes, and they are so refined. I think everybody will find something to enjoy.”

The new-generation Defender is expected to run on the automaker’s latest all-aluminium platform, ditching the original’s ladder-frame chassis. Late in 2017, Gerry McGovern, the British brand’s design director, promised the new model would retain the original’s off-road capability, but warned it wouldn’t necessarily look much like its predecessor.

While spy photographers have snapped the short-wheelbase Defender 90 and the larger five-door 110 derivative, an earlier report suggested Land Rover would also include a bakkie in the upcoming range, positioned to take on the Mercedes-Benz X-Class.

Expect the new Defender to be fully revealed at some point in 2019, with sales set to start in 2020.

https://www.carmag.co.za/news/new-land-rover-defender-to-retain-some-original-appeal/
 
Wasn't the whole point of the defender that it was a rough, rugged uncomfortable work horse that could go anywhere. Something you could personalise?

Now it is just seemingly going to be a hipster mobile for millenials to drive around town with their kale frappacinos?
 
New Land Rover Defender spotted testing at the Nurburgring

Reborn 4x4 icon enters final testing stage on the Nordschleife ahead of 2019 reveal and 2020 on sale date

The all-new Land Rover Defender has been spotted carrying out performance tests at the Nurbürgring in Germany in preparation for its planned launch later this year.

The long-wheelbase prototype vehicle can be seen taking the famous 'Carousel' bend at speed, suggesting Land Rover engineers are making final adjustments to the model's suspension, brakes and steering set-up.

Due to go into production early in 2020, the rugged 4x4 was previously spotted testing in North America. Engineers were said to be subjecting the Toyota Land Cruiser rival to "rigorous test extremes", including temperatures as low as minus 40deg Celcius and as high as 48 deg, as well as at altitudes up to 13,000ft.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-land-rover-defender-2019

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Whomever is in charge of 'design' at Land Rover has lost their mind :rolleyes: The latest Discovery Sport is quite nice but is nothing more than a new Freelander, the new Discovery is hideous and now what used to be essentially a farm implement has been turned in to something an SJW would have come up with.
 
Spy Shots: 2020 Land Rover Defender

As we inch closer to Land Rover Defender production, more and more images are emerging of the vehicle undergoing testing. Here the Land Rover Defender has been spotted on the Nurburgring.

While the Nurburgring doesn't seem to be the most appropriate place for a Land Rover Defender, suspension, chassis and brakes still need to be evaluated and assessed in harsh conditions. The previous Defender didn't have a stellar reputation for on-road manners, which makes this appearance at the Nurburgring interesting. If the new-gen Defender is to be a success, it will have to drive like a premium JLR offering and be comfortable on the tarmac, without impacting its iconic go-anywhere capability.

https://www.cars.co.za/motoring_news/spy-shots-2020-land-rover-defender/46367/

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Someone managed to get some close-ups of the undercarriage!

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