Land Rover Confirms Next Generation Defender Potentially Presents EV Version

Land Rover Defender. (Doc. Jaguar Land Rover)

JAKARTA - Land Rover is one of many automotive players who are committed to launching more electric vehicles globally.

In fact, the British manufacturer is planned to present Defender in a pure electric version (EV) by the end of the decade as the model appears in the form of the latest generation by carrying a more sophisticated platform.

This was revealed by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Chief Commercial Officer, Lennard Hoornik who said that the latest generation Defender coded L663 is impossible to be used as a pure EV because it is not designed for battery placement or electric motors.

"L663 is very brilliant in its function and we provide a Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) version, but it is not easy to find the extra space needed in the chassis for batteries, considering it has been designed with a double that accommodates its capabilities," Hoornik said as quoted by Autocar, Wednesday, January 22.

In fact, Hoornik admits it found the difficulty of building a current generation Defender with the PHEV system coupled to a 6-cylinder machine, before deciding to present it with a 4-cylinder configuration.

"We have said we will design EV production models in each model, but we find it difficult to find space on the Defender platform so that different architectures are needed," Hoornik added.

Hoornik belum mau memastikan apakah ini harus menunggu Defender generasi kedua di atas platform terbaru atau memperkenalkan brand baru Defender khusus EV. Tetapi apapun langkah yang diambil, ini akan menjadi sebuah evolutionary bagi seris ini.

"EV needs to achieve significant steps in the evolution of Defender," Hoornik said.

Currently, Land Rover provides a Defender in the PHEV version consisting of type P300e and P400e. Both have a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder engine that combines electric motors with a total power of 404 ps and a torque of 640 Nm.

Both P300e and P400e are armed with batteries capable of providing a distance of 43 km of pure electricity in one sentence.