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Defender of the Crown!


Defender of the Crown!

Author: Trent NikolicDate: 1 September 2011
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There’s been concern in off-road circles for some time about Land Rover’s legendary Defender. Faced with the reality their favourite mud runner will no longer meet safety and emissions standards come 2013, fans of the famous British off-roader have been worried about what Land Rover will do with the Defender brand.

Well, fear no longer. If this concept vehicle is any indication, things will only get better for the tough-as-nails Defender. Called DC100, this is a thoroughly modern take on a classic design. There’s no doubt what its lineage is though.

The functional and purposeful design is thanks to the Land Rover design team headed up by Director of Design Gerry McGovern. Land Rover says the Defender replacement will be released in 2015.

McGovern is understandably proud of his new creation and reckons it points the way forward for the brand with no fear. "Replacing the iconic Defender is one of the biggest challenges in the automotive design world; it is a car that inspires people worldwide,” he said. “This isn't a production-ready concept but the beginning of a four-year journey to design a relevant Defender for the 21st century."

The aim of this concept, according to global brand director, John Edwards is: “to engage with existing and potential customers to help us finalise the details of the new vehicle”.

“We are determined the new Defender will be true to its heritage,” he said.

Edwards also noted, at the launch of the Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover’s ‘brand vision’ was to become the “gold standard of the SUV market […] our core DNA is design, capability and versatility”.

According to Edwards the global SUV market can be divided into three main segments: Luxury, Leisure and Utility. Luxury, exemplified by the Range Rover, should reach two million units per year globally across the segment by 2017; Leisure, where the Freelander resides, should hit eight million vehicles, while Utility, in which today’s Defender competes, should achieve 3.3 million units.

However, Defender shifted just a handful units here in Australia in 2011 and only 18,500 around the world, figures that show just how far behind the utility vehicles produced by the likes of Toyota, Mitsubishi and Nissan. More than that, Land Rover has also lost the Australian Army as a client.

So, while we don’t know all of the details just yet, we do know that Land Rover is considering one of two options for new Defender. And that is to tweak the robust T5 chassis that underpins Discovery and Range Rover Sport, which could work if new Defender isn’t to be a rugged, stripped-out special. The other alternative is to build a totally new chassis for the thing, but this would only be warranted if the new Defender was to spawn a host of new body styles: extended wheel base, ute, wagon, and so on. Doing this would add greatly to production costs.

Jaguar Land Rover already has three UK factories and each one of them is tied up producing a platform each. Adding in an all-new platform would require factory space, storage and inventory control for a new set of components. But with Russia and China, and even India looming large as emerging markets for the brand the possibility of opening up a factory in one of those places to produce Defender can’t be ruled out.

We’ll know more about the incredible DC100 at the Frankfurt Motor Show so stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated.

 

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News, Defender, News

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