New Defender: all-rounder
Weeks ahead of its full reveal LRM are one of the lucky few titles to take a ride in it
THE wait is over. After years of debate about what the replacement Defender could, would, should (and shouldn’t) be, the reality has roared into our lives, powered by a choice of powertrains and a bewildering array of new technology that will make new Defender the most capable offroader, ever. For fans of the green oval, this is the most important model launch in Land Rover’s history. The future of the Defender has been in the balance for decades, because of its antiquated, hand-built design. That it clung on so long is testament to its enduring appeal as well as Land Rover’s sheer terror of replacing an icon.
Enthusiasts were afraid that its rugged toughness might be watered down. They wondered if it would still be called Defender. And they were fearful it might look like something designed by Gerry Mcgovern.
Their fears were allayed today when Land Rover rolled out the Defender 110 (soon to be followed by the Defender 90). It’s more rugged, tougher and capable than ever. And the biggest irony of all is that Mcgovern has succeeded in designing a vehicle that doesn’t look like he designed it.
Enthusiasts will be relieved that here is a Land Rover model that doesn’t look like all the other bland offerings from the modern Land Rover line-up. This is a Defender for the 21st Century. It doesn’t need a blood test to prove its ancestry. There is no need for the Wilks brothers to turn in their graves. It looks a bit like a Discovery 3 / 4, but it looks more like a Defender.
Of course it doesn’t look as boxy as the outgoing model. Modern legislation has made that impossible. Gone too is the near-vertical front screen. But it still looks purposeful and, well, Defender-like. The front and rear are the most Defender-like – perhaps less so from the sides, especially on the 110, which looks a bit long and low. The 90 is the looker, we reckon.
So much for names and looks. But this is a Defender, so what does it do?
This is the most advanced off-roader ever built by Land Rover. It will climb and descend higher mountains, wade deeper rivers, negotiate steeper side slopes and clamber over bigger rocks. All this is possible thanks to highly-sophisticated technology.
New Defender is at the very cutting edge of automotive electronics, which means it will breeze through soft desert sands and across slippery Arctic ice. But this also means that bush mechanics can no longer effect temporary repairs with an adjustable spanner, a fence post and a length of baling twine – something you might wish to bear in mind before attempting to drive new Defender through the world’s most remote and impenetrable jungles.
It has long been known that a car with a wheel as close to each corner as possible sticks to the ground like glue. That’s how the original Mini Cooper came to win so many rallies in the early 1960s. Land Rover has very sensibly enhanced new Defender’s handling by doing the same – a move that drastically improves the vehicle’s prowess on uneven ground, by reducing the front and rear overhangs and thereby improving its approach and departure angles. But moving the wheels to the corners does make a bit of a mockery of the nomenclature: the Defender 110 now has a wheelbase of 119 inches, while the 90’s is 102 inches.
Did you ever think you’d hear of a petrol Defender delivering a fuel consumption of sub-30mpg (and hitting 0-60mph in just over six seconds)? Well you have now.
For decades, Defender owners had a simple choice of engines: diesel or nothing. How times change! For new
Defender you get a choice of powertrains including Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle (MHEV) technology as well as a range of Ingenium petrol and diesel engines, all fitted with intelligent Stop/start technology to minimise emissions: zero when an advanced Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) joins the range next year.
Diesel power comes from four-cylinder D200 or D240 engines, with sequential twin turbos delivering 430 Nm (310 lb-ft) of torque to optimise performance and economy. The D200 delivers fuel economy of 37.2 mpg and 0-60 mph in 9.9 seconds, while the more powerful D240 matches the efficiency while accelerating from 0-60 mph in 8.7 seconds. Both enjoy fuel economy of 37.2 mpg and CO2 emissions of 199 g/ km.
Petrol choices are between a turbocharged four-cylinder P300 engine and a six-cylinder P400 MHEV powertrain. The former accelerates from 0-60 mph in 7.7 seconds, with CO2 emissions as low as 227 g/ km, while the latter achieves 0-60 mph in 6.1 seconds with CO2 emissions of 220 g/ km – and fuel consumption as low as 29.4 mpg.
Top speed varies from 109 mph to 119 mph, depending on model, but no doubt that will change pretty dramatically when the tuners start working on new Defender. Hold on to your hats.
The only transmission offered so far is a sublime eightspeed automatic. Maybe there will be a manual option when the pared-back Commercial model is released next year. With its estimated price tag of £35,000, JLR will be looking to make some savings somewhere. Hopefully it will be simpler, with fewer electronics. But that’s just our conjecture – and wishful thinking, perhaps.
Nobody will be surprised to learn that new Defender gets air suspension, although the technical spec sheets we have also seen mention a coil suspension option. Again, this may be for the Commercial. If you plan to drive your new Defender off-road, you will be delighted with the air suspension, which offers increased ground clearance of 291mm, which can be boosted a further 145mm at the flick of a switch (or, rather, a dab on the 10-inch touch screen). The air suspension can also be lowered at rest to allow easier access for driver and passengers.
The all-round independent suspension is a bonus, too. Adaptive dampers monitor body movement up to 500 times per second and react instantaneously. Gone is the centre diff lock, replaced by an electronic option that offers a choice of limited centre slip as well as centre and rear slip – all selected via that touchscreen. New Defender is, of course, permanent all-wheel-drive.
Deep wading is new Defender’s party trick – the recommended maximum being a whopping 900mm. There is also a Wade option on the inevitable Terrain Response 2 control – which, incidentally, is configurable so that owners can pre-programme four custom settings of their own.
If you simply can’t be bothered with setting all that technical stuff, you can just let your Defender do its own thing. The auto functionality of TR2 can recognise the sort of surface you are driving and configure the vehicle accordingly, with zero input from the driver. Most of the controls can be accessed from the touchscreen in the dash – which is easy and intuitive if you can negotiate a smartphone.
The technical spec we have received from Land Rover doesn’t include details of what’s hidden beneath, although it is obvious the old ladder-style steel frame and beam axles are gone, no doubt replaced by sub-frames beneath the car supporting the suspension and new bodywork, which is heavy-duty, all-aluminium and monocoque, giving it the sort of stiffness that compensates for the demise of the 1940s-tech chassis. This improves off-road ability as well as on-road driving, so what’s not like to like?
The rear door opens from the side – just like the old model
– and is strong enough to mount the spare wheel in the customary position. Avoiding keeping the spare under the boot floor not only makes it easier to access, it also improves the ground clearance and departure angle at the rear when tackling steep hill climbs.
Visibility is excellent and helped no end by the frontmounted camera that enables you to ‘see’ through the bonnet, via Clearsight Ground View technology, while a 3D Surround Camera provides a 360-degree view of the surrounding area.
Defenders fitted with the front jump seat also feature Clearsight Rear View tech, in which the interior mirror switches from a conventional mirror to a digital screen showing a feed provided by a high-definition rear-facing camera mounted high at the back of the vehicle, to eliminate blindspots. The 1.7 megapixel camera also provides superior clarity in low light conditions and has a hydrophobic coating to maintain performance in wet and muddy conditions.
The truth is, there isn’t room here to list all the new technology in new Defender. But it is worth mentioning that the all-new 5G-ready Pivi Pro software is automatically updated, wirelessly, making it effectively “future-proof”, claim JLR.
More important to most readers will be the towing ability, which is excellent. A range of towing systems are available and new Defender can haul 3500 kg off the tow hitch as well as carry 168 kg on the roof while on the move (maximum 300 kg when static, which is ample for a roof tent and two adults, plus kit).
Talking of roof tents, these can now be factory-fitted, along with winches, snorkel, expedition roof rack and a whole lot more. There are in fact 170 accessories as well as four distinct accessory packs (Explorer, Adventure, Country, Urban and Above & Beyond). It appears JLR is trying to put a lot of aftermarket suppliers out of business.
And if you do get too much mud on your shiny new Defender, you can wash it off with another optional extra: the Portable Rinse System includes a 6.5 litre reservoir, hose and shower attachment and, says Land Rover, “can be used to clean everything from dirty kit to filthy dogs”.
The extensive list of standalone accessories also includes an Inflatable Waterproof Awning.
There is a choice of 12 wheel designs, ranging from 18 inch white-painted pressed steel rims to 22 inch Luna alloys. Body colour options include three new metallic shades, with Tasman Blue, Pangea Green and Gondwana Stone joining Fuji White, Eiger Grey, Santorini Black and Indus Silver in the colour palette.
Inside the cabin, the driving experience is nothing like the
old Defender. There’s legroom and elbow room in the front and the interior is designed for maximum practicality. The front row centre seat (aka jump seat) allows three people to travel in the front row. The main controls, including the auto gearknob and central touchscreen, are mounted high to allow legroom for this seat.
Defender 110 can be specified with five, six or 5+2 seating while the short-wheelbase 90 can take six occupants in a compact body that’s the length of a family hatchback.
Look down and you’ll find durable rubberised flooring which, combined with flush door sills, provides genuine mop- or brush-clean functionality.
Of course, the big worry for many would-be Defender buyers is the robustness of all that new electrickery in the newcomer. Ever since the 1990s and the ill-fated secondgeneration Range Rover P38, Land Rover fans have been justifiably concerned about the reliability of all those electronics. After all, much of the appeal of the outgoing Defender was its simplicity. How do we know all this bravenew-world stuff won’t go horribly wrong a few miles down the road?
Well, the simple truth is, we don’t. But Land Rover have made a massive investment to make sure it doesn’t.
“To ensure the electrical systems are as rugged and robust as the rest of the vehicle, Defender is the first new Land Rover to benefit from enhanced validation testing, the result of a £37 million investment in new facilities and infrastructure,” they say.
“As a result, the new EVA 2.0 system has been through the most comprehensive development programme the company has ever completed, ensuring every aspect of the vehicle lives up to its rugged reputation.”
Old Defender was effectively hand-built – its design predated the modern production line and its army of robots – and as a result it was produced in unprofitable small numbers. New Defender will need to sell in larger numbers, despite the savings made by building it on an automated modern production line in Slovakia, where workers get paid a fraction of their Solihull and Halewood counterparts.
So who will buy it? Defender fans, definitely. Purists and lovers of classic Land Rover simplicity will probably stay away, but assuming you aren’t averse to modern technology you will love new Defender.
You will also appreciate the fact that this will get you to places other off-roaders (including old Defenders) can’t reach, although relatively few are going to put in an appearance at the average club RTV trials. Not with a £40,000-plus price tag, anyway.
But the added on-road comforts, towing capability and sheer versatility will see a whole new legion of fans, including a great many former Discovery owners, who loved the Disco 3 and 4, but hate the fifth-generation Discovery with a vengeance. It will be the new Defender – especially the 110 – that starts picking up all the towing awards in the years to come, mark our words.
Here is a car too that will find favour with owners of other 4x4 marques, simply because it is so much better than anything else available. It is going to be a big hit with farmers, who have been deserting Land Rovers in recent years. We reckon this is the vehicle that will lure them back – not least because it is a workhorse that also just happens to have impeccable road manners and unrivalled towing ability.
And then there’s the other big contracts from the military, emergency services, utilities and aid and other NGO organisations around the world.
Land Rover has already confirmed that it is to continue its long-standing humanitarian partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, centred around the new Defender.
The design of new Defender is open to adaptation to suit all specialised applications., which means this versatile model truly is the 4x4 for all reasons.
We now eagerly await the appearance of the Defender 90 – and of course the Commercial version. We really are intrigued to discover what the Defender base model will be like. Will it have coil springs and a lot less electrics? Time will tell.
LRM isn’t like other magazines. We don’t simply sing from the JLR songsheet, trotting out the words they want you to hear. Praise from us has to be earned – and on this occasion they deserve it.
New Defender is the most important launch Land Rover have made since 1948. And once again they’ve got it about right, we reckon.