New Defender: 200,000 sales per year!

Land Rover is about to take a huge step on the road to an all-new Defender by selecting a final design theme for the next generation of the 4WD icon.

And the company is in the process of developing a comprehensive and ambitious plan to develop multiple Defender variants, build them in big numbers outside the UK and to eventually raise sales as high as 200,000 per annum.

However, much remains to be locked in as the Defender replacement is still “three to four years” from production, Land Rover global brand director John Edwards told motoring.com.au at the Paris motor show.

“We have in the design studio right now four or five full-size models and we are very close to making what we call our theme selection,” Edwards said. “I am pretty sure I know which one it is.”

He made clear one design proposal that won’t get up is the DC100 (Defender Concept – 100 inch wheelbase) which debuted at the Frankfurt motor show in 2011.

“It was only ever a design concept, so I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that product we showed will not go into production,” Mr Edwards declared. “And some people assumed that product - because it looked like a pretty firm design - would go into production. It will definitely not go into production in that form.”

Whatever the form of the Defender replacement, it will not please rusted on buyers of the utilitarian current generation, as Land Rover will move it upmarket chasing buyers of vehicles such as the Toyota Prado and HiLux.

“We have done a huge amount of work, including a huge amount of research talking to customers; but importantly potential customers, not the current customers,” Mr Edwards explained. “The current customers, whilst we would love to retain them, the core market is something different. They are driving Toyotas and Nissans.”

Mr Edwards’ massively ambitious plan for Defender has been encouraged by the company’s Indian owners, Tata Motors. He said vice-chairman Ravi Kant had told him to think as big as possible and ask himself just how much Defender could achieve.

“Defender is a 20-year plan and for me the long-term vision is we should be selling 200,000 Defenders in 20 years’ time,” Mr Edwards said.” To do that you need different body types; short, long, pick-up, van, station wagon. You need the full range, and you also need to think about where you are building it.”

By that last point, Mr Edwards meant the Defender would need to be assembled where potential sales were strongest and trade barriers highest. He nominated the Asia-Pacific and South America as two markets where such criteria applied. While there already some small assembly operations internationally, most Defenders are built at Solihull in the UK.

Edwards said the new Defender will initially be offered in one just one bodystyle, but would progressively add models lines as Mini has under BMW ownership.

“They launched one car and then they built on that success and on that success. That’s my vision for Defender.”

One thing yet to be decided is just what underpinnings the new Defender will be based on. Jaguar Land Rover is moving most future models to a highly scalable aluminium architecture and whether that would be appropriate for a vehicle offered with distinct price-limits is a question being grappled with internally.

The simple answer is we haven’t decided yet,” Mr Edwards said. “Whilst we remain 100 per cent committed to this car, it is still three to four years away. So this is not a car we are launching in the next 12 months. There is quite a lot of work to do, there are quite a lot of decisions to be made.”

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