Much to the dismay of hardcore purists, Land Rover debuted the DC (Defender Concept) 100 in 2011. It is intended to be a replacement to the current Defender, which has been in production for an unbelievable 68 years. The concept strayed far from the rugged designs of the original Defender and looked too soft, a bit like the Range Rover Evoque. Luckily, Jaguar Land Rover USA CEO Joe Eberhardt feels the same way and has promised that the new Defender will look nothing like the DC100.

When it makes a splash onto jagged terrains in 2018 it will be slotted as the middle-of-the-pack Land Rover, less luxurious than the Range Rover line but more apt to surviving harsh conditions than the Discovery. When Eberhardt spoke to Automotive News earlier this week he said that he wants the new Defender to be the top-of-the-line in off-road performance but still be a commercial success and not just a niche vehicle for diehards. For JLR, this means upping Defender sales figures by a factor of ten. To make this happen, the new version will have two two-door models, a four-door, and two- and four-door pickup versions of for maximum utility.