New Land Rover Defender WON’T please die-hard Defender fans

The new Land Rover Defender – now due in 2019 – won’t please die-hard Defender fans says Land Rover Design boss Gerry McGovern.

Ever since Land Rover delivered concepts of the new Defender in 2011, there has been much speculation about the replacement for the vehicle which has been at the heart of Land Rover’s USP for almost 70 years.

Those 2011 Defender Concepts didn’t go down particularly well, and Land Rover has made it clear they no longer represent what is to come with the new generation of Defenders.

But despite that initial mis-step, Land Rover have still been bigging-up the Defender’s replacement, particularly Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s Design Chief, who has been the most vocal.

Speaking to Australian press in 2013, he said the new Defender will be “…the bollocks, the absolute dog’s bollocks”, and as recently as this summer he was busy telling us that the new Defender would appeal to a new generation of Land Rover lovers.

Now Gerry has been back chatting with the Australian press again at Los Angeles (what could possibly make him more jovial and open with the Aussies, we wonder?) and has expanded on his assertion that new Land Rover buyers will love the new Defender.

When asked, he acknowledged that the new Defender could well be polarising, won’t look like any other Land Rover – and not a shrunken, utilitarian Discovery – and that it probably won’t please die-hard Defender fans.

McGovern said:

I love the fact all these people are enthusiastic about it. I appreciate they’re the ones driving the euphoria but if they’re expecting to see a facsimile of the old one with all the latest tech, then I don’t think they’ll be satisfied.

That said, I do think it needs to acknowledge the great heritage of Defender in terms of its capability, in terms of its robustness, its durability – but not necessarily its visual quality.

Let’s hope Land Rover can find enough ‘New’ Land Rover lovers around the world to buy in to the new Defender if it’s not going to be liked by real Defender fans. If they can, then lovers of the old Defender could probably scratch their itch with the Ineos plans to build a new Defender.

Unless Land Rover succeed in scuppering those Ineos Defender plans.