Land Rover has been hinting for years at launching a Defender powered purely by batteries, however utilizing the present Defender platform will not be potential, a senior govt at JLR has revealed.
In an interview with Autocar printed on Jan. 21, Lennard Hoornik, JLR’s chief business officer, mentioned an electrical model of the present Defender has been dominated out as a consequence of difficulties in packaging the battery.
JLR is about to launch an electrical Vary Rover and can observe it up in fast succession with an electrical Vary Rover Sport. Nonetheless, these SUVs are constructed across the extra trendy MLA platform, which debuted within the newest Vary Rover and was designed from the onset to assist electrical powertrains.
The Defender is predicated on the older D7 platform, the MLA’s predecessor, which Hoornik mentioned makes battery packaging difficult due to the axle design and the off-road functionality necessities. A plug-in hybrid possibility is out there on the Defender in some markets, however the battery right here solely has a capability of 19.2 kwh, which Land Rover says delivers lower than 30 miles of EV vary.
Hoornik, in his interview with Autocar, revealed that JLR is dedicated to launching a Defender-branded EV in some unspecified time in the future, although he did not make clear whether or not this could be a future Defender on a brand new platform or a separate mannequin just like the oft-rumored child Defender.
JLR has explored various options, together with the opportunity of utilizing a hydrogen gasoline cell as an alternative of a giant battery. Nonetheless, for now, plainly an electrical model of the present Defender has been dominated out.
