Next-gen Land Rover Defender to launch in 2016

The next-gen Land Rover Defender will be the most capable Land Rover ever built, according to Phil Popham, Jaguar Land Rover’s group marketing director. The new Defender is likely to be made available in international markets in 2016.

Speaking at the recent Paris show, Popham said the long-awaited new model would have the biggest “breadth of capability” of any model to wear the Land Rover badge. The claim emphasises the importance that JLR is putting on replacing the iconic Defender, which has its roots in the 65-year-old original Land Rover model.

JLR has, so far, succeeded in keeping the wraps on the likely styling and the engineering make-up of the new Defender. However, our sister publication Autocar UK says the styling of the new car has already been signed off. It is thought that the styling theme was given the green light earlier this year.

However, a sneak preview in the form of a concept car is currently being discussed. Potential debuts for a concept are the Geneva motor show 2015, the New York motor show 2015 or the Frankfurt motor show 2015.

The new Defender is likely to be underpinned by a version of the company’s aluminium monocoque with the addition of a substantial aluminium superstructure, in order to make the architecture as stiff and rugged as possible. This technique – mixing a monocoque passenger cell and a separate steel chassis – was used in the Discovery models to great success, but resulted in a vehicle that weighed more than two tonnes. Repeating the exercise in aluminium should provide even greater structural rigidity than the Discovery 4, with much weight reduction.

Autocar UK suggests, the new Defender will come with the new Ingenium range of four-cylinder turbocharged diesel and petrol engines as well as V6 engines. They will be connected to eight and nine-speed automatic gearboxes as standard, but there is no definitive news on whether there will be the option of a manual transmission.

As for the new Defender’s interiors, Land Rover’s design team is aiming for a cabin that is distinctly upmarket and better than that of rivals like Toyota’s Land Cruiser.

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