LONDON: The Land Rover Defender is returning as a mainstream model for the global market and deliveries are set to begin in the European summer, the British manufacturer has announced.
The chunky, go-anywhere new car takes many design and capability cues from the sturdy original which was withdrawn from sale in 2016 after a production run of nearly 70 years. Among its famous owners is Britain's Queen.
The styling of the permanent four-wheel-drive Defender has been evolved from the car's utilitarian roots with the goal of generating more sophisticated but still rugged appeal.
Land Rover is aiming for a larger chunk of the off-road market after sales of the old Defender - mainly to hardcore enthusiasts who admired its spartan robustness - had slipped to around 5,000 units a year before it went out of production.
The new Defender has been reborn as a global car and will be built alongside the Discovery at the company's new Slovakian plant. By rejigging the Land Rover to comply with global car regulations, the company hopes to boost sales in China and the United States where local laws have previously held back sales.
The more expensive longer five-door Defender 110 variant will be offered first, priced from €56,600 (RM268,000). It will be followed later in the summer by the Defender 90 which is half a metre shorter and has three doors. Land Rover said the smaller model can still accommodate six people. Price start at €49,500 (RM234,000).
Power will come initially from two diesel and two petrol engines, including a mild hybrid. Output ranges between 200 and 400 horsepower. A plug-in hybrid version is also in the pipeline.
Land Rover said the new Defender has been subject to a gruelling test regime more severe than that carried out for any previous model. Defenders have covered nearly 2 million kilometres across terrain ranging from desert to the snowy wastes of the Artic.
