A Three-Row Land Rover Defender Is Coming Our Way

Land Rover has been making a great financial recovery in recent months, driven by popular models such as the Range Rover, but newer models such as the Defender have also proven themselves valuable: despite the high cost of some of its trim levels, the Defender has outsold the old model in America. Land Rover recently revealed that it is working on a pickup truck to rival the Ford Ranger, as well as a more affordable Defender 90, and now comes news that a three-row Defender 130 is in the works, and should go on sale within the next 18 months.

According to Land Rover Chief Financial Officer Adrian Mardell, the Defender 130 as it will be known will “hit a sweet spot in North America, China and also the Middle East, which we’re not yet touching.” An internal document shows that the Defender 130 will keep the same 119-inch wheelbase as the two-row Defender 110, but will stretch the total body length by 13 inches for a total of 201 inches. The three-row “premium explorer” as Land Rover calls it, joins an accomplished lineup that already includes a plug-in hybrid and supercharged V8 version, with the pickup truck hopefully following soon after.

As Land Rover slowly starts to assert itself in the American off-road market, Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s head of design thinks that there is massive potential for the Defender brand: “looking at what we can do with that brand because with a relatively small investment we can increase its appeal. I’m absolutely convinced Defender will become a power brand in itself.” While Land Rover plots its next move, its sister company Jaguar is planning to go fully electric by 2025, but Land Rover doesn’t seem to share the same ideals yet, but we can expect to see more PHEVs in the near future. The arrival of a fully-electric Defender will truly signal that mankind has reached a new age of enlightenment.