Land Rover Defender Is Back, And We Like What We See

The upcoming 2020 Land Rover Defender has been spotted testing in its production avatar. Just as we expected, the SUV (in its truest sense) has a geometric design with a flat hood and sharp lines. It looks tough and durable, befitting of the Defender heritage. While there is no confirmation on the date of the launch, Land Rover has hinted at the Paris Motor Show that the car will be launched in two years time.

When it comes to the looks, the flat bonnet might be covered under some cladding to hide its original design. But, judging by the way it currently looks, we sincerely hope the shape is retained in the production model. The breefy bonnet is complemented by the sleek grille and the headlamps, which lend it a modern touch. There is substantial cladding on the side body too which makes it difficult to figure out the shape, especially behind the C-pillar. The rear gets a sideways opening door and a flat profile which looks simple. But, the silhouette is a boxy one which stays true the Land Rover DNA.

Built on an aluminium chassis and with an aluminium body, Land Rover promises that the Defender will be a lot more capable than the competition and will feature independent suspension all around. Another interesting fact is that because of the modular architecture, this generation of the Defender could have is own family of similar-designed SUVs, but that would be much later in the life cycle.

Because this Land Rover will be launched in 2020, it will come with at least one hybrid powertrain. The test mule is running on a 2.0-litre diesel which was confirmed by running a registration check. Other powertrains are yet to be confirmed. Also, there will be two versions on sale, a LWB (110) and a standard (90), with the former one being the flagship. A good news here is that there might also be an SVR variant of the SUV developed by Land Rover's own Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division. This could be a serious competition to the Mercedes-AMG G 63, which will be launched in India today. There could also be an off-road ready Defender SVX and a premium SVA variant, but these are yet to be confirmed.

As far as an India launch is confirmed, expect the SUV to arrive at our shores in 2021.