A new Land Rover Defender is to debut at the British brand’s 70th anniversary party in late 2018, and sales of the much-anticipated Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) would finally begin in 2019, according to Autocar .
Land Rover will position the Defender as the third pillar of the brand’s range, in addition to the Discovery and Range Rover lineups.
The firm’s goal will be to sell 100,000 of them year worldwide. To hit a broad audience, there will be two wheelbase lengths and a choice of hard or soft tops. Later, there will likely be a pickup, too.
According to Autocar, the production Defender will not look like the earlier DC100 concept, and it won’t have an overly retro-inspired appearance, either. The model will ride on a version of the same aluminum-intensive underpinnings as the Discovery and Range Rover.
Land Rover has a challenge when it comes to positioning the Defender in its lineup. The previous ones have a legacy for being tough off-roaders, but the company knows that the new one has to appeal to a more general audience, too. Expect the production model to take some of the firm’s all-terrain tech but still be soft enough to function as a daily driver.
