2020 Land Rover Defender

2020 Land Rover Defender: Everything We Know

The new Defender promises high tech, but hopefully Land Rover won't forget what made it so great in the first place.

BY BOZI TATAREVIC

 BRENDA PRIDDY & COMPANY AND KGP PHOTOGRAPHY

Details have been scarce, but a new Land Rover Defender is coming. What we know so far is that it will come to the US and will likely share some components with other Jaguar Land Rover products. Even though the company is not releasing any details, here's everything we've been able to glean from searches of engineer profiles on social media.

Pictured above, the 2011 Land Rover DC100 Concept.


The Codename

The first bit of information that shows up on multiple profiles is that the vehicle has been assigned a project code of L663, a project name of “Darwin,” and it rides on the D7U platform. This platform is aluminum intensive and is currently used by vehicles such as the Range Rover Sport and Discovery, so the Defender will likely have some similarities in the chassis.

Multiple project descriptions show the L663 Defender listed alongside the L462 Discovery, so it is very likely that the Defender and Discovery will share some amount of components and technology. Since it will be so similar to the Discovery, it is not surprising to find out that the Defender is likely to be produced at the new Jaguar Land Rover factory in Nitra, Slovakia. The Land Rover Discovery started production there last month and profiles for project managers on site show that they are setting up tooling for the Defender in the same location. Other profiles show that training for project “Darwin” started in Nitra earlier this year.

Two Wheelbases

Further research shows that the Defender will come in two wheelbases and will retain the 90 and 110 designations that it has used in the past. It is unknown whether these will be exact measurements for the wheelbase since it was rounded on past models; the old Land Rover 90 actually had a wheelbase of 93 inches.

A Hybrid?

As noted by Motor Authority last month, the Defender will also be getting a plug-in hybrid variant with technology developed by Tata Technologies. According to additional profiles, a Lear plant in Morocco is currently tooling up to build the high-voltage wiring for the Defender.

Camper Roof?

Perhaps the oddest description found for the upcoming Defender comes from a German roof supplier which lists the development of a panoramaaufstelldach for the vehicle. The direct translation of that word is camper roof. That means it is possible that the Defender will be available with a lift out roof similar to what is found on some European spec vans.

New Instruments and Tech

Inside, the Defender is slated to feature a brand new instrument panel, the first one built in-house by Jaguar Land Rover. This instrument panel is being co-developed with one for the next generation Jaguar XJ. Alongside this new panel, the Defender will employ a gesture recognition camera that is being developed by Aptiv and will likely offer similar features to the latest iDrive system in the BMW 7-Series.

The Defender gets more new cameras on the outside with the front of the car listed as getting the new Bosch Generation 3 front facing camera. That will interface with a next generation advanced driver assistance system that is listed as being the first “service based control system” from JLR.
When asked about these details, a representative from Land Rover provided the following statement:

Much as I'd love to unlock the keys to the kingdom, as you probably already assumed, we aren't able to comment on much of the specifics of the program for the next generation Defender.

I can confirm that the program is progressing well and, as you may have seen, has reached an exciting stage of its development with the first camouflaged prototypes hitting the streets recently. More news will be subject to a future announcement.

More details are likely to pop up as the vehicle gets closer to introduction but the currently available information shows it to be a very technologically advanced vehicle that will also offer some classic overlanding features. It should give the Mercedes G-Class a run for its money.