Land Rover will bring a ‘baby Defender’ into its product line-up, and the forthcoming model is tipped to be called the Defender Sport, reports Autocar.
This will become the fourth model line in the manufacturer’s range alongside the likes of the Range Rover Evoque, Velar and Land Rover Discovery Sport, and will use the EMA electric vehicle platform, according to the publication.
The expansion of the Defender product range into the compact segment was confirmed by Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell, who said that Range Rover, Defender and Discovery products will emerge from that platform.
Given its positioning, the ‘Defender Sport’ is likely to be more road-focused, and be physically smaller than the current L663-generation Defender that is 4,583 mm long, 1,969 mm tall and 2,105 mm wide with a wheelbase of 2,587 mm in three-door Defender 90 guise.
The L663 Defender will spawn a fully electric variant some time around 2026, and will use the MLA architecture that supports both internal combustion and fully electric powertrains, as used for the L460 Range Rover that made its debut in October 2021.
By comparison, the EMA-based, smaller Defender model will be similar in size to its platform siblings, and thus is likely to measure around 4.6 m long and two metres wide, or around the dimensions of crossovers like the Skoda Kodiaq, Autocar wrote.
Vehicles based on the EMA platform will be outfitted with an 800-volt electrical architecture, which will enable these to have among the quickest recharging capabilities of any EV currently on the market, likely to be capable of taking up to 350 kW of charging input. The batteries will be supplied by parent firm Tata’s new UK-based factory, and will have significantly greater energy density that those in the Jaguar I-Pace.
The new batteries will also be slimmer to offer better packaging; this includes taking up less space in the cabin, as well as offering improved ground clearance, the latter an important trait for a product bearing a form of the Defender nameplate.
GALLERY: Land Rover Defender 90 P300 in Pangea Green
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