{"id":132375,"date":"2018-12-27T13:20:29","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T18:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=132375"},"modified":"2018-12-27T13:29:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T18:29:36","slug":"new-land-rover-defender-coming-to-us-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2018\/12\/new-land-rover-defender-coming-to-us-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"New Land Rover Defender Coming to US in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Land Rover is bringing back the Defender for the 2020 model year, including a return to the U.S.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been nearly three years since the last Land Rover Defender rolled off the assembly line at the automaker\u2019s plant in Solihull, England, and more than two decades since the last of the go-absolutely-anywhere utes made it into the U.S. But the long drought is coming to an end.<\/p>\n

Land Rover officially announced today that an all-new version of the Defender will soon go back into production. We\u2019ll get an official look at the new model next year, though the Defender won\u2019t actually make it into American showrooms until 2020. But here are some very lightly camouflaged images to keep your imagination busy until then.<\/p>\n

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News Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere are a handful of automobiles that are beloved around the world and stand for a brand, a country and a distinct way of life. The Land Rover Defender is such a singular vehicle,” Kim McCullough, vice president of Marketing for Jaguar Land Rover North America, said in a statement accompanying those images. Think of them as \u201ca holiday gift\u2026and a hint of what\u2019s to come in the New Year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Defender, which faces only a handful of competitors like the recently updated Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen, has a storied history, officially dating back to when it was originally known as the Land Rover Ninety \u2013 with a stretch version dubbed the One Ten. In fact, what became known as the Defender was pretty much just a subtle update of Land Rover\u2019s original Series 1, 2 and 3 models.<\/p>\n

(Range Rover redux \u2013 second gen Evoque breaks cover. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The 2020 Land Rover Defender will be the company's most capable off-roader yet, officials say.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though the Defender has become something of a status symbol not just as a cute-ute or soft-roader, but a vehicle designed to take on pretty much anything and anywhere you might hope to travel on four wheels.<\/p>\n

The Brits make it clear that testing of the next-gen Defender is still underway and that will include some really extreme conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngineers will subject the vehicle to rigorous test extremes to make sure the new Defender is the most off-road capable Land Rover vehicle ever; operating in temperatures from -40F to +120F while driving the test vehicles on- and off-road at altitudes of more than 13,000 feet above sea level,\u201d the company noted.<\/p>\n

The last Defender did evolve, at least to some degree. In 1983, when it first debuted, it was about as bare bones as you could get, down to the hand-cranked windows. The next-generation model is all but certain to offer a wide range of luxury features, from power seats, mirrors and windows to onboard technologies like navigation and cameras that will make it easier to traverse tough trails.<\/p>\n

Land Rover promises the new Defender will be \u201ca revolutionary product \u2026 with even broader appeal,\u201d incorporating \u201c70 years of innovation and improvement in just one model year.\u201d<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for more about the new Evoque.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the Paris Motor Show nearly three months back, Jaguar Land Rover Chief Marketing Officer Felix Br\u00e4utigam said, “The new Defender will not simply be a copy-cat, something retro. It will be something that moves the game on for Land Rover.”<\/p>\n

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The new Defender isn't likely to hit U.S. shores \u2013 or steeply graded hills \u2013 until well into 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That said, these images make it clear that the next Land Rover Defender won\u2019t stray far from the original, visual formula. That includes familiar design cues like the squared-off body seen here, with round headlights and the rear-mounted full-size spare tire. The taillights will likewise be familiar to Defender fans.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll quickly note that these pics all show a four-door version of the new Defender, but a two-door model has also been caught by spies a few times while testing.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have to wait for more information, though Britain\u2019s Auto Express noted that early prototypes of the Defender have been running a mix of gasoline and diesel engines, the latter believed to be 2.0-liter turbos.\u00a0 A mild hybrid system is believed to be in development and could be used on some, perhaps all, versions of the new SUV.<\/p>\n

The new model, meanwhile, is expected to have an independent rear suspension and use an all-aluminum body and chassis shared with other JLR products, albeit heavily beefed up to meet the demands of Defender users.<\/p>\n

(Land Rover\u2019s wants to take autonomous vehicles off-road. For the story,\u00a0<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Precise timing of the new Defender unveiling hasn\u2019t been announced but we expect to see the production model in the U.S. before the middle of 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been nearly three years since the last Land Rover Defender rolled off the assembly line at the automaker\u2019s plant in Solihull, England, and 20 years since one was shipped to the U.S. All of that appears to be changing as Land Rover announced the Defender is coming back, including to America. Get details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5],"tags":[],"make":[74],"post-state":[],"category_old":[286,150,151,123,287,289,299,265,163,132,284,125,139,290,128,278,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132375"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=132375"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=132375"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=132375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}