There’s probably no greater challenge for a designer than
redesigning an icon.
And they don’t get more iconic than the Land Rover Defender,
a vehicle whose design hasn’t changed much in close to seven decades.
Land Rover was forced to end production of the Defender last
year, with the most recent model unable to meet crash safety and emissions
regulations.
Mercedes-Benz has a similar problem with its equally iconic
G-Class, though the German automaker has taken the easy route by making its
redesigned G-Class almost a direct copy of
its predecessor.
Land Rover design boss Gerry McGovern will have none of
that. Speaking with Automotive
News (subscription required), McGovern said the new Defender, expected
to debut in late 2018 or early the following year, won’t feature a retro
design.
“I am a modernist,” he said. “I'm looking forward, not
back.”
McGovern also said that the design of the new Defender had
been locked in and that engineers were now working hard to ensure the vehicle
is just as capable if not more so than the predecessor.
A teaser sketch seen by Automotive News was said
to depict a vehicle with a flat roof and squared-off front end, like the
original version. Based on McGovern’s comments about retro design, that’s
probably all that will be common between the two.
As an indication of how tough the challenge has been, Land
Rover in 2011 rolled out the DC100
concept as a potential design for a new Defender. However, the cheap,
almost cartoonish look of the vehicle was quickly derided and the design
scrapped.
Land Rover has also decided to ditch plans to make the
Defender an affordable workhorse along the lines of the Toyota Hilux. Instead, the
automaker will adopt the aluminum platform found in the Range Rover, Range
Rover Sport and Discovery. Using this platform means Land Rover can build the
new Defender on the same production line as its other PLA-based models. The
downside is that the vehicle won’t be as affordable
as previously thought.
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