New kids on the block
This year’s new Defender launch is the biggest Land Rover event of the decade, but there’s a new kid on the block determined to spoil the party, as Dave Phillips explains
Dave Phillips pits the new Defender against the Projekt Grenadier. Which one would you have?
THE CHAMPAGNE’S on ice and the corks are ready to pop for the most talked-about event in modern Land Rover history. Coming up is a launch so big they will be tracking it at Cape Canaveral. I’m talking, of course, about the new Defender.
Forget your Evoques, Velars and Sports. This isn’t yet another designer clone from the Mcgovern vision of modern Land Rover. Defender can trace its roots back to 1947 and a sandy beach on Anglesey, when the original Land Rover legend was born, and its bloodline continued on through the Series models, Tdis, Td5s and TDCIS – until production of the last Defender ended, three long years ago.
Bosses at JLR are well aware that the tough, uncompromising reputation of the workhorse Land Rover was the secret of the sales success of its more luxurious siblings that followed. Now the reputation of the newcomer is essential to the success of all the future Range Rover and Discovery variants.
This is the most important launch JLR have ever made – and that’s why they’ve dithered and prevaricated for so long. They know they have to get it right, because the company’s future depends on it.
You can be sure the new model will be the most capable 4x4 ever built. It will effortlessly cross terrain that would make a mountain goat think twice. But it will also be one of the most complicated vehicles the world has ever seen, bristling with ground-breaking new technology. And there’s the twist.
You see, Defender’s reputation was built upon its uttersimplicity. It was bought because it could run on poor-quality fuel and be mended by bush mechanics. What happens if the new model is just too darned clever for its own good?
What if potential buyers still want something nice and simple – something like the old Defender that ceased production in January 2016? Something like the Projekt Grenadier, maybe?
Projekt Grenadier is the brainchild of Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is worth a cool £21 billion, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. Yorkshire-born Sir Jim, 65, is founder of the Ineos oil and chemicals conglomerate – and he is also a Land Rover fan.
He was devastated when production of the original Defender ended and unsuccessfully attempted to buy the rights to continue building it. Undeterred, he decided to build something very like it – and set aside £600 million of his own money to do just that. He has already signed up BMW to supply the engines and the respected German design house Mbtech to work on the engineering.
But despite the German connection and its working title (“Projekt” is the German spelling of “project”) the vehicle is
“WHAT HAPPENS IF THE NEW MODEL IS JUST TOO CLEVER FOR IT’S OWN GOOD?”
as British as roast beef. The name came about because the idea was hatched over a lunchtime pint in the Grenadier pub in London’s Mayfair. Its real name will be announced this summer when a public competition to name it ends.
There are already over 200 engineers working on the project and a mule has been tested in the Austrian Alps. There is said to be just one wheelbase – believed to be the 100 inch wheelbase that enthusiasts have so long demanded. Land Rover, on the other hand, are known to be testing short and long wheelbase models, to take the place of the old Defender 90 and 110.
The Ineos vehicle will sit on a ladder-style chassis with aluminium body panels and beam axles, just like the old Defender. The new Defender, however, is said to be an all-aluminium affair, possibly monocoque, and with independent suspension.
The BMW four-cylinder Twinpower Turbo petrol and diesel engines will be re-engineered for use in the new 4x4, to cope with the extreme operating angles of a 4x4 and poorquality fuel in remote areas. Ratcliffe sees his baby as a natural replacement for the utility Defenders used by NGOS, oil companies and aid agencies throughout the world. In fact, anywhere that a 4x4 is expected to work for its living.
New Defender, of course, enjoys the benefits of JLR’S superb range of Ingenium engines and is sure to be available with a choice of diesel, petrol and hybrid. Both the Grenadier and new Defender are expected to offer an automatic transmission option.
It has not yet been announced where the Ineos models will be built, although the company has insisted it will be built in Britain, and is targeting sales of around 25,000 a year – roughly the same volume as the outgoing Defender. Both vehicles will be sold globally – including North America, where the Defender was effectively outlawed for being unable to meet US safety laws.
The pilot-built Defender prototypes were created at JLR’S Brown’s Lane former Jaguar factory in Coventry, but it is unsure where the production model will be built. It’s hoped it will be the model’s spiritual home at Solihull, although some fear it may be Slovakia, where other models are being assembled ( thishasnowbeenconfirmed-ed.).
Ineos is deliberately keeping the Grenadier as basic as possible, with hose-down interior and a simple dashboard without an infotainment screen. Mark Tennant, commercial director of INEOS Automotive, said the finished product will however feature a mount for drivers to use their own devices. “This will not be a Chelsea tractor,” he added.
The new Defender, on the other hand, boasts a large infotainment screen, a digital instrument binnacle and a chunky multifunction steering wheel. It is also expected to boast a jaw-dropping array of off-road driving enhancements – the culmination of an excursion in electronic devices that began in 1997 with the original Freelander’s electronic Hill Descent Control, continued with Terrain Response in Discovery 3 in 2004 and has expanded through every other model ever since. No Land Rover launch is complete without the announcement of a whole host of new acronyms (ABS,
DSC, ETC, er, etc). What is certain is that new Defender will be able to wade deeper, climb steeper and overcome greater obstacles than any Land Rover – nay, any 4x4 – has ever gone before.
It will also have an infinite number of add-on accessories and refinements. JLR has already made it plain that the Land Rover brand will be split up into three sub-brands: Range Rover, Discovery and Defender. A Defender Sport can only be just around the corner: in fact a camouflaged Defender mule was photographed in March being put through its paces at the high-speed Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany. The world’s most notorious racetrack is not the sort of place you’d go to try out rock-climbing ability.
New Defender will certainly earn its stripes in extreme environments. A prototype was spotted undergoing gruelling testing in North America, where it was subjected to temperatures as low as minus 40 Celsius and as high as 48 C, and at attitudes of up to 13,000ft.
Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe said: “Defender was the world’s most famous car; it conquered the planet. Now there’s a gaping hole for a world-class 4x4. It might sound arrogant to think we can fill that gap, but we have the confidence. We want to build something that looks cool and retains all the off-road ability of the Defender, plus it has to be reliable. This car will provide a step-change in reliability. If we can deliver that, I have no doubt it will be a success when it arrives in 2020-2021.”
The new Defender, meanwhile, is expected to surface later this year and be on sale in early 2020. Chief Designer Gerry Mcgovern said: “In its core form it can be something that can be quite elemental up to something incredibly luxurious.”
The Grenadier is expected to be priced from £30,000, while the new Defender will start at around £40,000.
One’s the vision of Britain’s richest man, the other’s designed by Gerry Mcgovern. Two very different vehicles from two very different men, but both claim to be the true descendant of a legendary 4x4 invented over 70 years ago. One has the advantage of being very much like the old Defender, the other has the cachet of that green oval badge.
Which one will be your favourite? You decide!