Defender

Make
Land Rover
Segment
SUV

The current Land Rover Defender has been a successful return of the nameplate to North American soil. This year, the range got even stronger with the announcement of several updates, including the arrival of the hotly anticipated Defender V8. With 518 horsepower from its 5.0-liter supercharged V8 engine, it's not short on power, allowing the Defender to reach 60 mph in under five seconds. But the Defender V8 may not be the most powerful variant in the lineup for much longer. The latest rumors indicate that the 2023 Defender SVR will take on that role with over 600 horses.

Other SVR-badged Land Rovers like the Range Rover Sport SVR sacrifice some of their off-roading ability for more overt styling, carbon-fiber add-ons, and a lot more on-road performance. This ethos is almost at odds with the Defender's go-anywhere image but should make for an interesting end result. According to Motortrend, the Defender SVR is rumored to make use of a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine from BMW. This is something we first heard about back in 2019. In the BMW M5 CS, this V8 produces as much as 627 horsepower. It should feature an eight-speed automatic transmission and will ride on the same Modular Longitudinal Architecture as less powerful Defenders.

Both Defender 90 and Defender 110 SVR models will be on offer. In the lighter body of the Defender 90, the SVR should be an especially rapid performer. Notably, this will be the first overtly sporty, high-performance Defender yet. Considering that the 2022 Defender starts at $97,200 when equipped with the V8 engine, the SVR-badged models will easily be six-figure cars and are expected to start at over $120,000. That number will only rise for the bigger Defender 110 or any options that will likely be available. The anticipated on-sale date for the Defender SVR is spring 2022, so we expect an official reveal before then.