Defender

Make
Land Rover
Segment
SUV

Land Rover has announced they will unveil a Defender concept at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show next month. In updating the iconic model, Land Rover may choose to develop a new platform with a separate chassis to allow a wide selection of vehicle types. Land Rover could also use an adopted, yet complicated LR3 chassis that could help to keep costs down. If the project gets the green light, Land Rover would need to sell around 60,000 to 80,000 units annually to make the project profitable.

Sales of the current model only reached 18,000 units in 2010. The military-capable Defender could be a popular vehicle in emerging markets in China and India, with the latter being responsible for producing Land Rover at the Tata Group. Earlier reports were suggesting that the Defender may be dropped entirely, but with the announcement of the new concept, it appears that Land Rover had had a change of heart.