Land Rover Defender OUTSELLS every Land Rover except the Range Rover Evoque

The latest quarterly results from Jaguar Land Rover show the new Land Rover Defender is now outselling all JLR models except the Range Rover Evoque.

The arrival of what we’re still calling the ‘New’ Land Rover Defender must rank as one of the most prolonged, and delayed, in car history, with the first new Defender Concept – the DC100 – arriving a decade ago, and the final production version not arriving until 2019, more than three years after the original Defender went out of production.

To some degree that’s understandable when you’re trying to recreate an icon born in 1948 for the 21st century, but it’s clear Land Rover’s prolonged efforts to get the new Defender right – even if its appeal as a workhorse is limited by its price – as it seems to be going from strength to strength.

From ‘commercial’ versions of the Defender to a Defender PHEV and even a G63-competing Defender V8, Land Rover has continued to add to the offerings – and there’s still the 130 versions to arrive to add to the current 90 and 110 versions – and that’s seen sales increase probably more than Land Rover could have hoped.

In JLR’s latest sales figures, the new Defender outsold every car in Land Rover’s range except the Range Rover Evoque – and it nearly beat it too – and in the process outsold the Discovery by almost three to one with sales of 17,194, and with some 30,000 orders for the Defender in a 100,000 order bank too.

It has to be said, the ‘New’ Land Rover Defender is a real success, even if it seems to be signing the death knell for the Discovery.