• Netherlands-based Heritage Customs has revealed a custom pick-up conversion for the current Land Rover Defender 130.
  • Land Rover has said in the past that it could build a factory ute, but has failed to make one.
  • Heritage Customs’ other models include a Defender 90-based convertible.

Land Rover will expand the Defender lineup within the next two years to include an EV. But that will still leaving a pick-up-shaped hole in the range, one Heritage Customs can now fill – for twice the price of the standard SUV.

You might have come across Heritage Customs before. Boss Niels van Roij designed a Ferrari Testarossa Targa and Daytona-inspired 599 shooting brake, and the firm’s current lineup includes a Valiance convertible conversion for the Defender 90 that we wrote about in May last year.

Related: Heritage Customs Builds Land Rover Defender Convertible, Charges $92k For The Job

The Valiance pickup is based on a Defender from the opposite end of the size spectrum, the long-wheelbase 130 X Dynamic SE, that number denoting the distance in inches between the front and rear wheels (it’s 3.3 m for you metric lovers). In standard guise the 130 offers up to eight seats but Heritage Customs ditches the third row and the upper portion of the rear bodywork, and fits its own liftgate embossed with the Heritage name.

Spec details are few and far between and all of the available images appear to be renderings, rather than photographs of a real truck. But the firm is definitely taking orders – it even has a ‘Buy with Apple Pay’ button, like you might find on a Shopify store selling something for $15 not 10,000 times that amount.

$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build

An All Blacks edition is listed on the website for €142,562, but text below suggests the truck’s price range ‘lies around’ €155,000, which equates to $166,000 at current exchange rates. Two things you need to know about that price are that it’s almost double the price of a donor 130 X Dynamic SE (currently $81,400 in the US), which is thankfully included in the package, and that it excludes taxes. So don’t expect farmers to be hauling sheep around in one any time soon.

Land Rover itself has suggested that it could make a Defender pickup, something that would definitely add to the model’s appeal in the US and Australia. But we’ve yet to see any solid proof that a Defender ute is in the works.

$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build
$166K Buys The Defender Ute Land Rover Hinted At, But Won’t Build