New Land Rover Defender FIRST public outing at Goodwood FoS

The new Land Rover Defender has had its first public outing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with a new Defender 90 driven by the Duke of Richmond.

You might have thought, considering how many times we’ve seen the new Land Rover Defender in pictures this year, that Land Rover has already been at an event or three with their fleet of camouflaged prototype Defenders. But they haven’t.

Although Land Rover has been quite happy to churn out their own ‘Spy’ photos of the Defender, it’s all been done on their terms and without an audience. But now the new Defender has been put in front of one of the biggest live audiences at a ‘Car Event’ – the Goodwood Festival of Speed – for it’s global public debut, albeit still in camouflage.

Interestingly, Land Rover chose to give the Duke of Richmond, who was driving the Defender up the Hill, a new Defender 90, which won’t be the first Defender to arrive (that will be the 110) but is the closest in feeling to the iconic original. The Goodwood crowd is a very knowledgeable lot, and Land Rover must think they’d look more kindly on the 90 than the 110 (or the 130).

Due to be revealed in September, the new Defender is expected to be available initially only in the mid-size 110 version, with the Defender 90 version to follow in 2020 and the Defender 130 in 2021.

There will be a range of engines on offer across the range of sizes, with a trio of diesel – D200, D240 and D300 – a pair of petrols – P300 and P400 – and a plug-in Hybrid Defender in the P400e.

New Land Rover Defender Global Debut Goodwood Video