New Land Rover Defender will be sold in CHINA

Land Rover will extend the reach, and raise the sales potential, of the new Land Rover Defender by selling it in China as well as the US and Europe.

As we rumble on to the reveal of the new Land Rover Defender, it’s becoming clear that Land Rover are planning to make the new Defender a much bigger audience grabber than the iconic original ever was.

We’re sure there will be ‘basic’ utilitarian versions of the new Defender to tackle third world use, but at the other end of the scale we now know there will be luxury and performance versions of the new Defender too.

Not only that, but the new Defender won’t just be aimed at markets in Europe and Africa, but it will be a mainstream model in the USA too for the first time in more than two decades.

But JLR aren’t just aiming at deep-pocketed buyers in Europe and the US to dig deep to grab a performance or luxury Defender, they’re going to be selling it in China too.

China has been a blessing and a curse for JLR over the last decade, with strong sales in China underpinning their rise from the ashes of the Ford days, but drastically reduced sales in the last year or two thanks, in part, to reliability issues.

And it’s reliability which will be key to the success of the new Defender; if it’s got any serious glitches, perceived or real, JLR are going to have problems. But with the enormous gestation period the Defender has undergone we’d like to hope it’s completely nailed down before launch.

The new Land Rover Defender will be officially revealed in September.