Photo: Land Rover
With the time-tested ruggedness of the current Land Rover Defender, it’s pretty easy to see why the U.S. government does not allow them to be sold here. With Land Rover ending production of the classic SUV in 2015 after almost 70 years on the market, the next-generation Defender is waiting in the wings.
According to a report from Left Lane News, Land Rover has finally nailed down the styling for the all-new Defender. While you might think it would resemble one of the concepts that were revealed back in 2011, the report says that designers are starting over from scratch because the concepts looked “too generic” in prototype form.
Instead, the new SUV will feature a “bolder, more sophisticated look,” which means we could be looking at a design language shared with the more recent Land Rover intros like the complete Range Rover lineup and the 2015 Discovery. We don’t know what this new design looks like, but Land Rover will probably debut a new concept vehicle over the next year to tease the styling direction.
One thing that is completely unknown is the chassis, which could stick to a body-on-frame design like the current model or switch to the rugged, aluminum D7 platform underpinning the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Platform sharing would play a significant role in keeping the costs down.
The report adds that Land Rover could be looking to sell around 50,000 of the next-gen Defender SUVs each year, which would not only be a good argument for a cost-saving shared platform but also expanded sales… say, in the U.S. Although Land Rover has not confirmed that it will bring the new Defender to the U.S. market, the expected gains in efficiency and safety might make it a good bet.
Instead, the new SUV will feature a “bolder, more sophisticated look,” which means we could be looking at a design language shared with the more recent Land Rover intros like the complete Range Rover lineup and the 2015 Discovery. We don’t know what this new design looks like, but Land Rover will probably debut a new concept vehicle over the next year to tease the styling direction.
One thing that is completely unknown is the chassis, which could stick to a body-on-frame design like the current model or switch to the rugged, aluminum D7 platform underpinning the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Platform sharing would play a significant role in keeping the costs down.
The report adds that Land Rover could be looking to sell around 50,000 of the next-gen Defender SUVs each year, which would not only be a good argument for a cost-saving shared platform but also expanded sales… say, in the U.S. Although Land Rover has not confirmed that it will bring the new Defender to the U.S. market, the expected gains in efficiency and safety might make it a good bet.
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