Yes, yes, we know — at this point, the hype train around the all-new Land Rover Defender has been chugging along so long, we’re all pretty much ready for it to pull into the station once and for all. This latest round of reports, however, is worth mentioning — because they may have given us our best view yet into what to expect when the 2020 Defender finally debuts this September.
The first leak comes in the form of the image above that purports to show a rather finished-looking version of the new Defender, which made its way onto social media earlier this week. (Spanish language automotive Instagram account Cochespias appears to have been one of the first to post it, hence why we’ve included their picture here.)
While it’s always possible that it’s a hoax, the photo looks legitimate to our Photoshop-trained eyes; besides, the details line up well with the CGI profile of the car recently spotted by spy photographers on the instrument panel of a camouflaged Defender prototype seen in the wild, further burnishing the odds this is a legit picture.
The second leak comes from the website Disco4.com, which appears to have obtained some internal Jaguar Land Rover product slides revealing details about the new off-roader’s trim, powerplants and packaging. The biggest piece of news: The new Defender will come in not one, not two, but three lengths: the Defender 90, the Defender 110, and starting in the 2021 model year, the Defender 130. The slides claim the 90 will be a tidy little thing, 10.5 inches shorter than the Land Rover Discovery Sport, yet still offer a choice of five- or six-passenger seating; the 110 will offer seats for anywhere between five and seven people, despite being almost eight inches stubbier than the current Land Rover Discovery; the 130, in turn, will offer room for eight, thanks to a body just four inches shorter than a Chevy Tahoe.
The Defender 90 and 110 will offer a range of gasoline powerplants, according to the slides, ranging from a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four making 296 horsepower in regular form and around 400 hp in hybrid form to a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six making 395 hp. (A trio of turbodiesel engines will also be available, but you’ll most likely see pigs fly before they reach American shores.) Four-wheel-drive and an automatic transmission will be standard.
The new Land Rover will come in a grand total of two separate configurations — “Standard” and “X-Dynamic,” according to the slides — and three trims, starting with the base S model and extending up through SE and HSE. An “X” configuration will also apparently be available on the Defender 130.
As for the all-important matter of timing: The slides suggest the new Defender will launch in 110 form this September as a 2020 model, with the shorter Defender 90 arriving in March of next year and the 130 landing in August 2020. The initial run of vehicles will only be available with limited choices of options, however, so you may wind up waiting a bit to order the exact new Defender of your dreams. Then again, you’ve already waited this long…
