The all-new 2020 Land Rover Defender will offer one of the most complex lineups in the industry.
The range will include three body styles (90, 110, 130), six powertrains, four accessory packs, 170 individual accessories (including a folding fabric roof for the 110), and even a Commercial model. There will be a new Defender for everyone, apparently.
Something the new Defender won’t offer is a pickup version, though. Unfortunately for fans of rugged pickups, it turns out that Land Rover scrapped plans to build a dual-cab truck based on the forthcoming Defender 130. A senior Jaguar Land Rover source told Australia’s Carsales that the pickup derivative had been dropped from the SUV specialist’s plans.
Also read: 2020 Land Rover Defender Yours From $50,925 In The U.S., £45,240 In Britain
Originally, Land Rover planned to launch the Defender pickup in late 2020 or early 2021 based on the upcoming Defender 130 SUV which reportedly will measure 5,100 mm (130 inches) in length. However, plans have changed since then as JLR bosses deemed a Defender pickup would be redundant.
“Why would you buy a dual-cab ute when you see what you can put in the back of one of these – this is already a ute with a roof,” the unnamed JLR insider told Carsales at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
If you want to know what we’ll be missing, rendering artist X-Tomi has digitally converted the recently unveiled 2020 Defender 110 SUV into a single cab pickup. Mind you, it’s not the exact type of pickup body Land Rover originally had in mind but the rendering offers us a pretty good idea of what a new Defender pickup would look like. So, what do you think, did Land Rover make a good decision or wasted a good opportunity of making more money?
