Is Land Rover's V8 Defender Beaten To The Punch By Its Electrified Upstart?

Land Rover is finally giving us a proper V8 Defender but is it beaten to the punch by its electrified upstart?

- Mark Smythmotorscribe

Price: R2 317 000 Engine: V8, supercharged, petrol Transmission: 8-speed automatic Power: 386 kW @ 6 000 r/min Torque: 625 N.m @ 2 500-5 500 r/min0-100 km/h: 4,90 seconds* Top speed: 250 km/h* Fuel consumption: 14,70 L/100 km CO ² : 332 g/km Rivals: Audi SQ7, BMW X5M, Mercedes-AMG G63

+performance; comfort; off-road ability

thirsty; expensive; fiddly Dynamic mode selector

Over 20 years ago, I was in a Land Rover dealership in Cape Town’s CBD getting my Discovery serviced when I noticed a slightly different Defender waiting to go up a ramp. Further investigation revealed it to be a left-hand-drive model belonging to a Swiss owner.

Aside from a bespoke interior, the thing that grabbed my attention was a discreet V8 badge. You couldn’t buy a Defender V8, that’s why I had to go for the Discovery … well, that, and because my partner at the time didn’t like the Defender. We’re not together anymore for obvious reasons.

Technically, Land Rover made a Series III V8 in the 1970s and there was a Defender V8 available in North America in the ‘90s but we never saw either of these. The closest you can get to one is buying a brand-new Classic Works Defender V8 but you’ll pay a small fortune for it.

That was the old Defender though and now, in this era of eco-consciousness and electrification, Land Rover has decided to give us, yup … a new Defender V8. And the crowd goes wild. Cue terms and conditions voiceover person, “We should point out that Land Rover is also introducing a Defender plug-in hybrid and you might want to read on for that.”