Decision time for Defender

Land Rover is working against the clock to finalise plans for the replacement for its Defender. Though a relatively low-volume model for the British marque, the iconic workhorse -- popular with horsey types, the military and serious offroaders alike -- is the cornerstone on which the Land Rover brand is built. The automotive equivalent of grandfather's axe, this year it will be 61 years young!
 
Re-engineered to meet European safety codes in 2007, the current platform's time runs out in 2013. According to Land Rover Managing Director Phil Popham -- Down Under this week for a quick tour of the ANZAC markets -- the company is hard at work defining the essence of the vehicle that will replace it.

Popham contends the Defender is more than just a commercial segment entrant for the brand. It will, it's apparent play an important role in defining Land Rover as a brand -- particularly as Range Rover moves from nameplate to a brand in its own right.

Popham says it's a "fair perception" that defender is the forgotten product in the brand's line-up, but says that's more a function of where the vehicle sits in its model life than any reluctance on the Brit brand's behalf.

"We started out as Land Rover and we introduced Range Rover as a nameplate," Popham explained. "The moment we introduced Range Rover Sport -- which has become the most successful product arguably in our history in terms of volume and profitability -- we created a brand out of Range Rover. Clearly with a third Range Rover on the way [see our LRX update] customers are telling us it's a brand all itself. That has given us an opportunity to think about what Land Rover stands for.

"Range Rover is kind of obvious in terms of ‘premiumness' and feature and perceived quality... With Land Rover there's a real opportunity to continue to develop along the lines of versatility, practicality, capability -- if you like the roots of Land Rover -- in a range of products and that is what we're working on at the moment," Popham explained.

"It is our intention to replace Defender. Defender has been an enormous success for us and has been around for 61 years now. [But] Before 2013 we need to be very certain and have planned what the replacement for that product is."

Popham says the next generation Defender will be even more capable.

"We'll be really tuning up the versatility side and practicality side. That for me is the core [attribute for Defender].

But he cautions that Defender's low sales volume is a challenge.

"The dilemma we've got as a company, when it comes to replacing an icon like Defender, is you're replacing a car that is known throughout the world and has been for 61 years, but its sells 25,000 units. [That is] Not a lot in the automotive industry and not a lot within our portfolio of products... You've got to sell a lot more than 25,000 vehicles off a new platform to make business sense.

"First and foremost we've got to define the segments in which it [the new Defender] will compete.

"We're a small player in the commercial [vehicle] business which is probably 3m vehicles a year. We need to understand what segments it can compete in; what body styles it needs to have; what level of capability, usage, duty cycle it's going to have -- and that's the work we're doing at the moment... Defining exactly where it will sit -- that will dictate what the car needs to do, how it needs to be engineered and will prove or disprove the business case," Popham stated.

"If you significantly simplify it on a modern platform, you still need to sell about 50,000 units to make it viable. [But] It is our heritage, it underlines our history and origins, engineering credibility and leadership and it's passed on a lot of things to the products that followed."

Popham did not comment on the specifics of the new vehicle, save to say it will be an all-new platform. All that talk about usage, duty cycle, etc, will define essentially whether the replacement is built body-on-frame (as is the current vehicle) or whether it takes the step into modern unitary architecture.

Our bet is the wide range of applications required to generate the volume will see it stay with the traditional structure -- albeit updated with weight-saving materials and for crash safety.

One thing the new car will not be is a badge-engineered Tata. On that Popham is adamant.

"As we work on a replacement for Defender clearly there are opportunities on the commercial side and certainly some synergies with Tata in terms of contract business [Tata is very strong in Asia in the LCV business]... [But] We'll never be in a situation of badge engineering."

He says that some development could be shared with Land Rover's Indian parent.

"Could you feasibly [co-]develop something with Tata -- possibly. In the same way we are sharing architectures with Jaguar. There's not many similarities between a Jaguar sedan and sports car and a luxury SUV, however, the architecture behind that -- in terms of components, electronics etc -- there huge synergies. So in that respect, yes, there could be [co-development with Tata].

It's not guaranteed that the car's iconic looks will be retained either -- though again we wouldn't bet against it. After all it's worked for MINI and Fiat…

"It is an incredibly complex process when you are looking at [developing a vehicle] for a broad commercial-vehicle four-wheel drive segment... But I wouldn't say anything is sacrosanct in terms of design or platform attributes," Popham said.

"I've no doubt Gerry McGovern and our design team can make a fantastic looking Defender replacement that the world will want to buy. But for me it's what's actually under the skin... Does it meet the requirements of customers. That's the work we need to do."

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