An Electric Defender Is Too Difficult To Make Right Now
The boffins at Land Rover have found themselves in quite the pickle. The company’s efforts to add electric power to the Defender have run into challenges that the company calls insurmountable.
Keeping the off-road qualities, the shape, and the design that Land Rover wants for the Defender, along with electric power, could mean it has to split the SUV in two. That’s two different models, with one built on a dedicated electric vehicle platform. Jaguar Land Rover Chief Commercial Officer Lennard Hoornik spoke with Autocar about the British automaker’s efforts to go EV on its SUV.
The Current Defender Doesn’t Have Enough Space
“The L663 [current Defender] is brilliant at what it does and we do have a [four-cylinder] plug-in hybrid version already, but it’s not easy to find the extra space you need within that chassis for batteries, given the axle packaging and capability that it needs,” said Hoornik.
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Space under the Defender is so tight that JLR can’t even use its bigger PHEV inline-six combination. The Defender P400e delivers 399 horsepower and 472 lb-ft from its 2.0-liter turbo-four system. The P460ee and P550e systems available in Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models deliver 453 and 543 hp, with 487 lb-ft and 590 lb-ft, respectively, thanks to a 3.0-liter inline-six. Though the Sport is not much larger than a Defender, it has double the battery size, allowing for a significantly longer electric range.
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“We have said that we will make an electric production model for each of our new brands [Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, and Jaguar] and remain committed to that,” continued Hoornik. “But finding the space on the current Defender platform is really, really hard, so we will need to use something different.”
Going Electric Could Mean A Second Defender Model
The report said that Hoornik would not confirm if he meant that JLR would have to wait for a second-gen Defender on a new platform or introduce a second model, but both appeared on the table. “The EV will need to come at quite a significant step in the evolution of the Defender,” he said. Recent reports claim that Land Rover will begin using a new platform designed by Tata, its parent company.
Land Rover’s first electric vehicle will be an electric version of the Range Rover, which is expected to launch this year. JLR has shown off the electric Rover on multiple occasions to help demonstrate that it will be as capable as the brand’s internal combustion models.
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JLR’s electric plans have been all over the map, which is a surprise considering that the Jaguar I-Pace was one of the first luxury EVs on the market. The automaker’s plans seem to change quarterly, but the most recent is to launch the electric Range Rover this year, followed by three more pure electric Land Rovers by 2026.
Source: Autocar
