JLR spruces ‘Land Rover’ Defender up once again inside and out

Having refreshed its line-up back in January, JLR South Africa has introduced yet more upgrades to the Defender range, this time externally and inside than mechanically.

New outside

Applicable to all three bodystyles, 90, 110 and 130, the exterior revisions consist of 22-inch diamond turned dark grey alloy wheels, a tinted finish for the restyled taillight clusters, a dark oval badge on the grille, new headlights and a gloss black finish for the grille bars across all variants.

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Redesigned front and rear bumpers in Silicon Silver or Carpathian Grey, gloss black Defender wheel caps and textured bonnet and side vents round the aesthetics tweaks off, together with two new colour options; Borasco Grey and Woolstone Green.

Changes inside

Underneath, no alterations have been made, however, inside, all Defenders receive a slightly revised centre console, upgraded materials and a new 13.1-inch Pivi Pro infotainment system.

On the technology front, Adaptive Off-Road Cruise becomes an option for the first time, while somewhat controversially, a new Driver Attention Alert monitor has been fitted atop the steering column similar to many current Chinese vehicles.

OCTA bespoke

Besides the regular Defender range, the hardcore OCTA has not been omitted from the changes despite having only made its world debut in July last year.

Centring on its exterior as it benefits from the same interior and tech updates as its siblings, the OCTA gets textured graphite trim, Phosphor Bronze outer edging on the Defender bonnet script, bumpers and side vents, optional carbon fibre accents and four colours for the 20-inch forged alloy wheels.

The final change is a revised choice of colours, with only Charente Grey and Petra Copper being carried over.

New, therefore, are Borasco Grey, Sargasso Blue and Patagonia White Matte, additionally furnished with a matte protective film.

Nothing new up front

Up front, the unchanged engine line-up consists of the 3.0-litre Ingenium straight-six turbodiesel in the D250 and D350, the mild-hybrid Ingenium 3.0-litre straight-six turbo in the P400, and the 2.0-litre Ingenium four-cylinder turbo-petrol paired to an electric motor and battery pack in the plug-in hybrid P400e.

For the former pair, outputs remain at 183kW/570Nm and 257kW/600Nm while the P400, without the electric hardware factored in, develops 294kW/550Nm.

In combined form, the plug-in hybrid P400e outputs 297kW/640Nm and, according to JLR, will travel emissions-free for 59 km.

At the range’s summit, the venerable AJ-V8 5.0-litre supercharged V8 soldiers on with outputs of 386kW/626Nm in the simply titled Defender V8.

The OCTA, meanwhile, makes use of the mild-hybrid BMW-sourced 4.4-litre twin-turbo producing 467kW/750Nm.

As before, all engines are mated to the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission.

Price

Price-wise, no changes have been made since the January updates. This also includes the standard five-year/100 000 km maintenance plan and eight-year/100 000 km battery warranty on the P400e.

Defender 90

• D250 S – R1 639 600
• D250 S County – R1 681 900
• D250 X-Dynamic SE – R1 699 700
• D350 X-Dynamic HSE – R1 870 700
• D350 X – R2 108 600
• P400 X-Dynamic HSE – R1 897 600
• P400 X – R2 126 600
• V8 – R2 924 300

Defender 110

• D250 S – R1 669 100
• D250 S County – R1 711 400
• D250 X-Dynamic SE – R1 732 400
• D350 X-Dynamic HSE – R1 904 600
• D350 Sedona Edition – R2 060 200
• D350 X – R2 179 900
• P400 X-Dynamic HSE – R1 929 300
• P400 X – R2 210 200
• P400e X-Dynamic HSE – R2 261 200
• P400e X – R2 337 500
• V8 – R3 054 100
• Octa – R3 449 100
• Octa Edition One – R3 749 100

Defender 130

• D350 Outbound – R2 029 100
• D350 X-Dynamic HSE – R2 062 200
• D350 X – R2 327 700
• P400 Outbound – R2 032 900
• P400 X-Dynamic HSE – R2 055 300
• P400 X – R2 348 100
• V8 – R3 165 400

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