Next-generation Defender coming to Canada in 2020
A brand new Land Rover Defender will touch down in the U.S. and Canada in 2020. And its camouflaged, prototype descendants are already here, kicking up dust somewhere in North America.
Land Rover announced the all-new SUV as a belated holiday greeting of sorts, along with some images of a camouflaged mule having a great all-North-American vacation: Visiting a farm, tackling a frosty mud bog somewhere in the sticks, and sightseeing near Staten Island in New York.
“On behalf of Land Rover and our retailers, we are proud to announce the voices of American and Canadian customers has been heard. The all-new Defender will be for sale here starting in 2020,” said Kim McCullough, vice-president of marketing for Jaguar Land Rover North America. “This announcement is a holiday gift to our Defender fans in North America and a hint of what’s to come in the new year.”
Beginning as early as January, Land Rover will test the next-generation Defender on North American soil, using the diversity of terrain and drastic changes in elevation and temperature to ensure the popular off-roader is “the most off-road-capable Land Rover vehicle ever.”
Land Rover is obviously setting some firm 2019 New Year’s resolutions. It is also hoping that by updating the Defender — which it says has been historically subjected to “evolutionary, rather than revolutionary” design changes — in a more drastic way, it will increase the vehicle’s public appeal. The model will have a completely new exterior and interior design, and the latest connectivity and driver-assistance tech, which seems like a given.