New Defender News

DieselRanger

Well-known member
What would be awesome is if you could just option the engine. I can build the 90 I'd want with the P300 for $56k or up it to a P400 with pretty much identical configuration for $66k. If I could add just the V8 for another $10k I'd be way more likely to do it than going with the rest of the fancy interior and exterior packaging for another $20k on top of the engine.

Over $100k base for the V8 110. So definitely a G-Wagen competitor, at least in the US.
 

ChasingOurTrunks

Well-known member
Yeah it is. Now the regular 110 has the option for coils.

Not sure if anyone has heard anything, but is JLR still planning on only offering Air Suspension and not Coils in North American Defenders? I seem to recall they were hard on that about 8-12 months back but...well, a lot has changed in the last 12 months!


Defender 130 on the way...soon. Maybe a pickup to follow?


Interesting article -- a 130 is a neat option, especially if it can be had without the extra row of seats. A 1-ton payload with over a foot more room than the 110 would have some excellent usefulness for the Overlanding market. One thing that got me wondering is this last bit:

No fewer than six purely electric vehicles are planned for the Range Rover, Discovery, and Defender families, with the first zero-emissions model scheduled for 2024. It's unclear when exactly the Defender will lose its combustion engine, but it will happen within the next five years.

I think that the author of the article might be misconstruing the reality here, or perhaps I'm taking their writing too literally. The existence of an electric-powerplant Defender doesn't mean it's "losing" it's internal combustion engines as the quote stated, it just means there will be an electric model offered. The linked article suggests that 60% of JLR vehicles will be electric by 2030 so....that's 40% that are still using dinosaur juice, so I don't see ICE Defenders going away anytime soon.
 

Carson G

Well-known member
Not sure if anyone has heard anything, but is JLR still planning on only offering Air Suspension and not Coils in North American Defenders? I seem to recall they were hard on that about 8-12 months back but...well, a lot has changed in the last 12 months!
Well you can already order a 90 on coils. Last I checked they haven’t updated the US configurator for the 110 yet.
 

ChasingOurTrunks

Well-known member
Well you can already order a 90 on coils. Last I checked they haven’t updated the US configurator for the 110 yet.
Even if they don’t sell them here in the states it shouldn't be hard toretrofit the coils. Frankly if I was gonna change it from air I’d order up a aftermarket spring and shock setup.

Cheers Carson. Didn’t realize the 90 was on coils over here already but that is promising for the 110 (I’ve only ever been interested in the 110 so haven’t been paying much mind to the 90) I agree on the benefits of the aftermarket options, the only unknown for me is how tricky a retrofit would be from Air to Coils from a sensors/electronics/ECU perspective. I’m sure it’s doable, just waiting to see how it’s done.

I would also be curious of the cost difference between air and coils on the 110 when they finally put it out.

No question this is a great machine off road — the latest from TFL shows it doing better than Toyota’s “Crown Jewel” off road we of the last decade (the FJ Cruiser). And it also outperformed a 4-runner with substantial modifications that brought the price over $70k and, in my subjective opinion, makes the 4-runner look out of place anywhere except off-road, especially relative to the Defender which I think looks at home most places, especially with the change in “apparent utility” (I.e. does it look ready for adventure) caused by the various packs like the Explorer pack.

 

DieselRanger

Well-known member
The existence of an electric-powerplant Defender doesn't mean it's "losing" it's internal combustion engines as the quote stated, it just means there will be an electric model offered. The linked article suggests that 60% of JLR vehicles will be electric by 2030 so....that's 40% that are still using dinosaur juice, so I don't see ICE Defenders going away anytime soon.
True. Jaguar will be 100% electric by 2026 so by sales volume alone that would get them close to that 60% metric. That will also give them their own credits that will offset things like the V8 Defender. My guess is the Range Rover line will go electric first, Defender and Discovery will offer ICE as long as it's legal and available. Until such time as you can strap a lightweight external battery to a roof rack to extend your range in the same way an ICE vehicle can carry fuel tanks.

However, it still doesn't seem like we'll ever see a D300 MHEV here in the US in any Land Rover, and that's a shame.
 

mpinco

Expedition Leader
JLR has already road-mapped that light-weight Jaguar will be fully EV while LR will remain mostly hybrid. I would expect LR to leverage the electric motor technology but begin the move to FCEV's for their heavier products like the RR and Defender. LR already noted that BEV's are a problem for that class of product. The batteries are too heavy and the range is too limited to ensure they are viable products.

Also don't ignore JLR downsizing capacity by 25 percent while also laying off a third of its India workforce as part of Project Charge+ that will see Jaguar move up-market.

Fisker recently ended solid state battery development as they saw the writing on the wall for that technology. The last 10% was going to take them a decade or more of investment, not worth it.

Personally I think EV adoption will hit a wall in about 3 years as battery technology stalls and charging availability limits adoption.
 
Last edited:

naks

Well-known member
Land Rover SVO Boss Hints at Hardcore Off-Road Version of the Defender V8: https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a35765140/hardcore-defender-v8-rumor/

"... When asked by Carsales.com.au whether SVO would be developing a Defender V8 that would live up to the badge, van der Sande didn't outright confirm the vehicle, but told the website its 2019 purchase of Bowler—U.K.-based off-road performance specialist firm known for building ultra-capable Land Rover rally trucks—was "very intentional."

"We felt we were slightly underrepresented in performance off-roading," he added.... "
 

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