Q&A: the New 2020 Land Rover Defender Facts and Figures
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00:00 Well we're here in Frankfurt at the Auto Show.
00:08 I'm with Nick Collins who's Vehicle Line Director on the new Defender.
00:12 Nick, it's the end of a very long road to get here but how excited are you and the team?
00:17 I'll tell you it's been an absolutely fantastic day.
00:20 We've been working on this project.
00:21 We're all complete Defender nuts.
00:23 We're so proud of the team.
00:25 It's quite an emotional day actually.
00:27 There was a few watery eyes around earlier when we unveiled the car.
00:30 It's fantastic.
00:31 And what a way for it to make its entrance.
00:33 Coming down the ramp at an impossible angle.
00:36 It sort of set the tone.
00:37 Yeah, I mean it came down about 43 degrees of slope and when people in the auditorium
00:42 realised what we were going to do you could hear the gasps of air.
00:45 It's been fantastic.
00:46 So for you personally, what is one of the highlights of today?
00:49 Because seeing the 2020 Defender literally take the stage, what's a highlight for you?
00:55 Well, we've been working on it for a long time now.
00:57 It's just lovely to see everybody's reaction to it.
01:00 It's so enthusiastic.
01:02 It's an automotive icon.
01:03 It's a British icon.
01:05 It's the foundation of our company and seeing all of that come to reality here is just brilliant.
01:10 Absolutely amazing.
01:11 And that is the important thing, isn't it?
01:13 As I said earlier, everybody loves the Defender.
01:16 Everybody has seen them literally all around the surface of the globe.
01:20 So what was that process like?
01:21 How do you keep everyone happy?
01:23 The purists who have memories of the old one and the new generation, how do you keep that
01:29 all together?
01:30 Well, you start with what Defender means to people and it's a very personal thing as you
01:33 say.
01:34 We all grew up with them as kids in the UK.
01:37 What has it allowed you to do?
01:38 It's allowed you to adventure to the four corners of the world.
01:40 It's allowed you to, even if you're just driving down the road, to feel like you're on that
01:44 adventure.
01:45 It allows you to drift away from maybe everyday life.
01:47 So you start with that as a philosophy.
01:49 This car still can get you to all corners of the world.
01:52 It still makes you feel like you're on an adventure.
01:54 It makes you feel younger again.
01:55 A kid comes out inside and that comes out whether you're off-road or on-road in this
02:00 car.
02:01 It really does create that atmosphere.
02:02 One of the things I've got to say is as soon as I saw the car launched, I was like, "Wow,
02:07 it's a lot more rugged and it has a bigger physical presence than the photographs show."
02:13 And I guess that's the right way around, isn't it?
02:15 It has that spirit of adventure written all over it.
02:18 Yeah, I mean, it's supremely tough.
02:19 We've got a bespoke new architecture underneath this car.
02:22 We've signed it off to the highest standards we've ever done.
02:25 The wheels can put seven tons of load into the body structure, for example.
02:29 So it really is the real deal off-road.
02:31 But we've worked incredibly hard in the efficiency of the car as well.
02:34 So we'll have a plug-in hybrid in a year's time.
02:37 We launched the car with a 48-volt mild hybrid.
02:40 We've got an aerodynamic coefficient of drag of 0.38, which is quite remarkable for a car
02:45 of this shape.
02:46 So we've really worked those details, worked the flat under floor to achieve that.
02:50 Let's talk about the architecture because the platform, it's the first time, obviously
02:55 for a Defender, that you've had effectively a monocoque.
02:57 So it's incredibly tough.
02:59 It's pretty much 10 times stiffer than the average body on frame.
03:03 It's three times stiffer than the best body on frame.
03:05 You've got no phase lag between ladder frame and body, so you've got much more connection
03:09 and precision.
03:10 That's great on road because you can position the car nicely.
03:13 It's great on broken surfaces because it's confident, precise, and agile and nimble.
03:17 With all the new safety features, with all the new technology, how do you, and your all-terrain
03:22 settings, what are the capabilities of this?
03:24 Yeah, so we want this car to have as long a life as the cars before it.
03:28 It's part of our history moving forwards.
03:31 So we've worked very hard on the physical geometry.
03:33 We've got an 845-millimeter front overhang that's very short.
03:36 I mean, you can see the wheels literally are on each corner, aren't they?
03:39 Yeah, exactly.
03:40 A very short rear overhang as well.
03:42 It gives us a great approach angle, fantastic departure angle.
03:46 I think we're 38 degrees on the front, 40 degrees on the rear.
03:50 Got 291 millimeters of ground clearance, 500 millimeters of articulation in the suspension.
03:57 So pretty much speaking, if you can get the front of the car over the obstacle, the rest
04:00 of the car is going to follow it.
04:03 We can also wade in water at 900 millimeters.
04:07 You're only limited at that point by literally the mass of the car.
04:10 You probably go a little bit deeper, but you might have to open the door and let some water
04:14 in.
04:15 One of the things that really struck us, and obviously we don't know which of these variants
04:19 will come to America necessarily, but the Adventure Pack one, two things immediately.
04:25 Who wouldn't want a ladder on the side of your Defender?
04:30 So I mean, that's amazing.
04:32 And the snorkel.
04:33 I'd have to have the snorkel and the ladder.
04:34 Well, one of the great things and one of the great reactions we've had is that everybody
04:37 talks about how they want their car to be.
04:40 We've got the broadest range of accessories we've ever offered.
04:43 170 of them, I think.
04:44 Yeah.
04:45 I mean, you've got the ladder on the side.
04:46 You can take 150 kilos of load going up the ladder.
04:49 The roof can carry 300 kilos statically, 168 kilos dynamically.
04:54 So three of me can easily sleep on the roof at night, and then you can pack your stuff
04:58 up and drive on.
05:00 The snorkel is fantastic for sand driving.
05:02 It faces rearwards, stops sand coming into the induction system.
05:06 But for everybody, Defender's always about personality and choice and character.
05:10 And people are just going to tailor it to how they want their car.
05:14 Not often do you get excited about seats.
05:17 But I've got to say, when I was sitting inside and I heard about the optional jump seat,
05:22 I mean, that's a nod back in every way to the original.
05:25 Absolutely.
05:26 It's a nod to the original character of Defender, that social three plus three seating.
05:30 That center jump seat is so cool.
05:31 My boys are already fighting over who's going to sit there.
05:34 But we've combined it with some really cool technology.
05:37 So we've got the clear sight rear view mirror, so that if you and I sat in that middle seat,
05:41 it would typically block the view out of the rear view mirror.
05:44 We use a camera off the rear antenna that displays as a sort of image in the rear view
05:48 mirror.
05:49 So even if you put three people in the front, you can still see clearly out the back of
05:52 the car.
05:53 And that's one of the things we're really proud of, is combining that smart technology
05:57 to the nods and the spirit of Defender, but in a very modern car.
06:01 And I've never seen so many grab handles in one car ever.
06:04 I mean, that again, it shows it's got its intention.
06:07 It is a beautiful vehicle that I'm sure a lot of people do the school run in.
06:10 But if you want to, you can, can't you?
06:12 You can go anywhere.
06:13 Oh, absolutely.
06:14 I mean, it's packed full of useful storage.
06:16 The grab handles are exactly where you need them.
06:18 One of my favorite things, we've got this exposed magnesium cross car beam for the instrument
06:22 panel.
06:23 Instead of covering it up with plastic, it's there for you to see.
06:26 The grab handles on the end of that are so robust, put the car in neutral, wind the window
06:30 down and you can push it along with it.
06:32 I do have to ask you, the square on the side, functional and just for appearance?
06:40 Absolutely functional.
06:41 So on the 110, it actually covers up the C pillar structure on the inside.
06:45 And we do provide storage on the inside part of that.
06:48 It also provides a landing pad when we fit the ladders of the car or the side pannier.
06:52 So you know, very functional from that perspective.
06:55 But it does balance the design of the car as well.
06:57 So aesthetically, it's fantastic.
06:59 So on the 90, the 90 comes without the square graphic, but some people will very occasionally
07:04 use the second row and will like the graphic.
07:06 So we've given them the choice of choosing it as well.
07:09 Very much connected to the dynamics of the car.
07:12 You talk about the suspension because you made some very definite choices there.
07:16 Yeah, so we've steel subframes front and rear.
07:18 We've got a double wishbone front suspension.
07:21 We got rear integral link.
07:23 We got air suspension and we've got core suspension options depending on which way you want to
07:27 choose it.
07:28 But we've signed this car off to our most extreme standards ever.
07:31 One of them is a 200 millimeter curb strike.
07:35 So that's a square edge curb driving to that 40 kilometers an hour repeatedly.
07:40 And that puts seven tons of load through those suspension links into the body structure.
07:44 So every link, every bush is the most robust, strongest link we've ever done.
07:48 Strongest bush we've ever done.
07:49 Strongest subframes and ultimately strongest suspension.
07:51 The terrain management in the center console, I'm very familiar with it.
07:55 I've used it on the other products in the range.
07:59 Any advancements on that to handle the capabilities?
08:01 Yeah, absolutely.
08:02 So we got our normal modes that you expect to see in any of our cars.
08:05 You know, grass, gravel, snow, mud and rocks, snow and ice.
08:08 But we've actually taken it a step further with Defender.
08:10 You can actually tailor it to your desires.
08:13 So you could tailor ride height, diff control, throttle response.
08:17 And if you find a mode that you particularly enjoy on a particular surface, you can actually
08:21 store that as a profile so you can go back in and reselect that mode in the future.
08:26 It has what you call permanent all-wheel drive.
08:28 How does that differ from?
08:29 Yeah, so we have permanent all-wheel drive.
08:31 We have a twin speed transfer box.
08:33 So we got a low range and high range on the eight forward gears.
08:37 We then go through center diff and electronically controlled rear diff as well.
08:41 Sort of closing this out, what do you want for future generations?
08:44 What do you hope?
08:45 What do you and the design and engineering team hope that people look back on this moment
08:49 in time for the Defender?
08:50 Because it is the start of a whole new age.
08:52 Yeah, I mean this is the product that started the Land Rover brand and we just hope people
08:57 fall in love with it in the way that we've all been in love with Defenders and series
09:01 Land Rovers within the team.
09:03 There's so many of my team, I'm so proud of what they've done.
09:06 They're all complete enthusiasts.
09:08 They've all got a car in the garage at home somewhere.
09:10 So we hope this creates that same free spirit, that same adventurous spirit.
09:15 And whether people are using this as their everyday driver, whether they're using it
09:18 for that family expedition or they're using that for that cross-continent expedition.
09:23 That they just feel that freedom and spirit and joy that only Defender can bring them.
09:27 [laughter]
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