Land Rover will reveal a Defender concept car at this autumn’s Frankfurt show; a ploy intended not only to demonstrate that the company is serious about replacing the 63-year old classic, but also to gather feedback on whether it is heading in the right direction with the replacement.
Producing a successor to one of the world’s best-known vehicles is never easy, and it’s even harder when it must compete in a market that brand director John Edwards describes as ‘cut-throat’. Despite this, Edwards says that he ‘can’t imagine not producing a successor’ to the 63 year old four-wheel drive that established the Land Rover brand. But, JLR cannot compete on price with the pick-up and utility four-wheel drive offerings of its high volume rivals, so it must configure a Defender that has enough advantages to command higher prices without removing itself from the market.
Edwards is also keen that it should be adaptable to the needs of armies, not least for the highly profitable parts business that these contracts generate. The production version is scheduled for release in 2015, and must sell in annual volumes of 60-80,000 units to be viable.
Land Rover is currently exploring the possibility of using a cost and complication-reduced Discovery chassis or engineering a new, bespoke chassis among other options. Its design must allow for the wide range of body types that the Defender has long offered, and needs to be repairable in remote territory.
Edwards says that Land Rover is keenly watching the progress of the Argentina-built VW Amarok pick-up - some inside JLR argue that VW may struggle to make money because the pick-up market is so competitive. He believes that whatever solution Land Rover finally picks, ‘it won’t please everyone’, because with so many fans and opinions it will be difficult to avoid disappointing some. The challenge is to please most of them and more importantly, attract new buyers to a vehicle of which only 18,000 were made last year.

 

I always thought that the New Explorer had a little Land Rover look in it... I would suggest that they take that and run with it.

 

Defender is supposed to be sharing the MT-82 trans lol not sure if this 100% true but i read it somewhere.

Always loved the rovers and the new explorer took shape like them so they look sweet as well.

 

I love the new explorer, I agree the style does look like something from Land Rover at least the front end does, but I think Ford got the rest of the body design better then LR which always looks a bit boxy.

 

And here it is:

 

Front end is a mess, the rest has potential.

 

Maybe its just me, but too much Skoda Yeti.

 

Good call. Could be worse, could be too much Fabia

 

Little disappointed here. This is what the defender had always been and it should stay along these lines. IMO.