Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Thursday has launched the new Land Rover Defender in India, at a starting price of Rs 73.98 lakh (ex-showroom, India). Available in both Defender 90 and Defender 110 variants, the luxury SUV’s pricing goes up to Rs 89.63 lakh (ex-showroom, India).
Bookings for the luxury SUV have already commenced and deliveries of the Defender 110 will begin immediately, while the Defender 90’s delivery is still a few months away.
Land Rover had announced the price of the new Defender back in February 2020, at an introductory starting price of Rs 69.99 lakh (ex-showroom, India). The customers, who booked the new Defender early on, will get the SUV at the introductory prices.
The new Land Rover Defender comes in two different body styles. While the Defender 90 is the 3-door model, the Defender 110 is the 5-door variant. Both the Defender 90 and Defender 110 come available in five different trim options, which are – Base, S, HS, HSE, First Edition.
The British luxury car brand, owned by Tata Motors has already introduced the new Land Rover Defender in overseas markets. The new Land Rover Defender SUV comes with a host of design and technology changes inside out, as compared to the previous model.
The latest version of the iconic offroader was unveiled on 10th September 2019 at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany. Interestingly, this is the first all-new update for the Defender SUV since 1983.
As JLR claims, the 2020 Land Rover Defender has been engineered to comply with global car regulations and expected to sell in 128 countries across the world, including two the world’s largest markets, China and the US.
Built on the modern monocoque 4×4 all aluminium D7X platform, the new Defender SUV, also known as L663, aims a more upmarket sector than its predecessor. The 3-door 4×4 variant is codenamed as L663 and the 5-door 4×4 model is internally known as L851.
Designed by Gerry McGovern, the SUV is assembled at Nitra plant in Slovakia. It takes heavy design inspiration from the DC100 Defender concept but retains the silhouette of the original version. The SUV measures 5,018 mm in length, 2,105 mm in width and 1,967 mm in height. Also, it has a wheelbase of 3,022 mm and a maximum wading depth of 900 mm. The pneumatic suspension equipped new Defender comes with a maximum ground clearance of 291 mm.
Land Rover has added a wide range of elements paying homage to the original Defender including the Aluminium castings on the windows and split taillights with LED treatment. So far, the SUV retains its iconic muscular boxy silhouette.
The 2020 Land Rover Defender 110 is loaded with new 10-inch PiviPro infotainment system, while the SUV is also equipped with two SIM cards to enable over-the-air (OTA) updates. There’s a 12.3-inch digital instrument console that can be configured to show different data as per the driver’s convenience.
Powertrain options for the new Land Rover Defender include a D200 2.0-litre I4 turbodiesel motor, D240 2.0-litre I4 turbodiesel, P300 2.0-litre I4 turbo-petrol and a P400 3.0-litre I6 turbo-petrol engine with mild-hybrid technology. All the engines belong to the new Ingenium all-aluminium powertrain range. Transmission options include a ZF 8-speed automatic unit.
The India-spec Land Rover Defender takes energy from a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine that churns out 296 PS of power and 400 Nm of maximum torque.
The SUV gets Land Rover’s famous Terrain Response 2 system, capable of configuring traction and suspension according to the need. The system allows the driver to optimise traction and automatically raise itself by 145 mm while off-roading. The pneumatic suspension is capable of reducing the ground clearance by 50 mm to improve the SUV’s ingress and egress.
The off-roader comes with an approach angle of 38 degrees, departure angle of 40 degrees and a break-over angle of 28 degrees.
The new Land Rover Defender comes with a host of electronic aids like torque vectoring, cruise control, All Wheel Drive (AWD), Hill Launch Assist, traction control, cornering brake control, adaptive dynamics, twin-speed transfer box etc.
In India, the new Land Rover Defender competes against rivals like Jeep Wrangler and Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
The Land Rover Defender was originally called Land Rover Ninety and later christened as the Land Rover One Ten as well. The SUV is the direct descendant of the original Land Rover Series which was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in April 1948.
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