The Land Rover Defender has only been out of
production for about a year and a half but fans are already clamoring for a new
model. Land Rover will soon answer them with an all-new Defender and design
director Gerry McGovern has revealed the company is "hell-bent" on
ensuring the SUV lives up to the original.
Speaking with Automotive News, McGovern said the
design work has already been completed and the new Defender will embrace three
key traits including design leadership, durability, and engineering integrity.
The company even showed a teaser of the model and it reportedly depicted a
vehicle with a flat roof and a squared-off front end.
That's not much to go on but McGovern said the
Defender wouldn't have retro-inspired styling as he's a modernist who's
"looking forward, not back." Since there will be a whole Defender
family, we can expect a handful of different models. Nothing is official but
speculation suggests there will be the familiar two- and four-door variants as
well as a truck and a seven-seater.
The Defender is expected to be unveiled in 2019 and
reports have suggested the model will ride on a new unibody platform and be
powered by an assortment of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines.
