If you thought that Range Rover Discovery is the pinnacle of Land Rovers off-road technology advancement you were wrong. Land Rover Defender of the newest generation will surpass it in terms of high-tech used for off-road driving.
When it finally reaches the worldwide markets in 2019, the Defender will feature technology of the highest level available. The recently presented Discovery will be trailing behind it by a mile at least. Land Rover was always, in general, the pioneer in many off -road features that are now standard on all 4×4 vehicles regardless of the manufacturer. They successfully introduced on their models the technologies like Antilock braking, traction control, Hill Descent Control, Terrain Response, etc. Furthermore, all these options will be available on new Defender as the company claims. But this is not all as we could hear reports that some of this new tech is made especially for the Defender and is rumored to have never been seen before.
Read more: 2017 Land Rover Discovery
According to Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth, the new Defender is complete in terms of engineering and prototypes of the car are being tested all around the world at secret locations. If you are going to believe to Ralf Speth, 2019 Land Rover Defender looks very promising. With a design already complete, minus few small details, this model is giving the impression of being fantastic.
Unlike other Land Rover models that are great sellers right from the start, the Defender wasn’t so well accepted by the market. This is the main reason why the introduction of the new model was delayed two times and why there is a three years gap in production.
At first, the launch of new Defender was scheduled for 2015. In those years Land Rover had a plan on building its company on three pillars. Range Rover, Discovery, and Defender. It was not successful because the third pillar Defender was not as good selling as the other two. With yearly sales never going over 20,000 pieces Defender was in times serious contender for discontinuation.
To make itself profitable, the new model would have to sell 50,000 models a year. That’s why people from Land Rover are not willing to discuss the numbers of new Defender. At this point, it is not possible to know, but we are free to assume that new SUV won’t come as a solo model but as a part of Defender family. This would leave the space to introduce more versions and trim levels in case of low sales.
Speth also stated that the new Defender will share aluminum architecture of its siblings the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Discovery. This doesn’t mean that they will be completely same, it is far from that. For what is considered to be the strongest Land Rover’s off-road SUV, it will have to have reinforced chassis able to withstand the most difficult of conditions.
The aim is to have an outstanding off-road vehicle that will appeal to hardcore offroaders but to also be tempting for a completely different sort of customers. It needs to attract those drivers that love tough cars but rarely go on an off-road excursion, and are seeking a decent level of luxury and comfort. This is something that Defender never was. That’s why the next generation won’t come as a single model but will have an entire lineup of options.
Land Rover Defender will most likely be built in the newest factory in Slovakia. The cost of manufacturing it are lower in Slovakia than in the UK, and this could result in a more affordable SUV than its aluminum brethren Discovery and Range Rove Sport. The initial plan is to build 150,000 units a year but according to people that have seen the facilities in Slovakia more than that will be produced. The first model that will exit this plant won’t be the Defender but one of the already existing models from British auto group. We assume that it will be Jaguar F-Pace.
Engine wise Defender will most likely use four-cylinder Ingenium engines from JLR lineup which are made in Land Rovers factory in Wolverhampton. The current version of Defender featured only diesel units, but we think that won’t be the case with the new model. Expanding markets in Asia and one of the largest car markets in the world, the US, all prefer petrol. That’s why it is safe to assume that both gasoline and diesel options will be introduced. The offered transmissions will include both manual and automatic as it’s the case with all of the others models from Land Rover.
The talk about new Defender has been around for almost two years, but no words about price have been spoken. This is always the case with Land Rover, as they like to keep this a secret as long as they can. Knowing them, and the fact that it is a premium brand we can expect that they will certainly price high their top of the line off-road SUV the Defender. According to experts base option of this model will cost $42,900 while the upper trims will be over $49,000. Those who want a cheaper car from British manufacturer will have to wait for so-called ‘baby’ Land Rover which is rumored to arrive in three years time.
