Land Rover has begun work on a radical new range-topping Defender to take on the upcoming Mercedes-AMG G500 4x4 Squared. This rugged Defender could be a long-awaited spearhead for the dormant SVX sub-brand from the British SUV maker.
- Rugged Defender to take on upcoming G500 4X4
- Will get hardcore off-road gear
- Expected to get a more powerful V8 engine
Land Rover Defender SVX: What to expect?
Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division (SVO) planned to launch the SVX brand for the most extreme reworkings of series-production models and to sell them alongside SVR and SVAutobiography cars.
The first model in this family was to be the 518hp V8-powered Discovery SVX, but that was cancelled in 2019, with Land Rover telling our sister publication Autocar UK the badge would live on for other, unspecified models. JLR design boss Gerry McGovern had earlier suggested it would “arguably” be appropriate for future Defender models. Now, as prototypes of heavily modified Land Rover Defender have been seeing doing rounds near the Nürburgring Nordschleife, it seems the SVX plan could be back on.
Power is expected to be supplied from the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 used by the existing Defender V8, which, in that application, produces 518hp for a 0-100kph time of 4.9sec. The Defender SVX will have a lot of visual differentiations from the standard SUV. The wheel arches, for example, will be heavily flared, the suspension is expected to be raised, the wheels and tyres will be bespoke all-terrain items among other unique tweaks.
It could be a similar treatment to that applied to the heavily modified previous-generation Defender in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre. Other defining features of that highly exclusive creation were its external roll-cage, front winch and protective body elements.
While the standard Defender V8 competes with Mercedes-AMG’s big-selling, the G63 SUV, this variant would more closely rival the more extreme G500 4x4 Squared, which is expected to enter its second generation this year.
Land Rover plans for India
The Defender is currently on sale here with multiple variants and bodystyles. Additionally, deliveries for the all-new Range Rover will commence in India later this year.
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