New Land Rover Defender Sport: electric baby defender to succeed Freelander in 2026

We spied the new Land Rover Defender Sport testing earlier this year, but now we’ve grabbed much better pictures of Land Rover's new baby SUV testing ahead of its reveal in 2026. 

One of six new models that Jaguar Land Rover will launch next year, assuming it gets over its current cyber attack woes, the Defender Sport (or Defender 80 as it could be known), will sit beneath the Defender 90 three-door, but unlike its larger sibling, the Sport will be all-electric. 

While the prototype spotted here wears the same amount of camouflage as the previous test car we spied, we can see the Defender Sport on the public road for the first time - giving us a much better sense of the baby Land Rover’s proportions. Its compact size can be seen in the short rear overhang, oblong wheelarches and a very upright rear screen. 

The Defender is known for being one of the most off-road focused cars you can buy today - leaning on the go-anywhere values of the iconic original. For the smaller EV model, we suspect Land Rover will be keen to continue this tradition - especially with the design. 

While the front end doesn’t look quite as bluff and the front bumper doesn’t seem to allow quite the same approach angle for off-roading, there’s a huge amount of wheelarch space (despite the massive alloy wheels). We can clearly see this car’s been getting mucky - news that’ll be welcomed by Defender fans. 

There are a few other details that can be picked out from underneath the camouflage, too, such as thinner horizontal headlights and no visible grille (not needed due to the EV powertrain). There’s also a new design of flush-fitting door handles and to the rear we expect to see a similar light cluster as the Defender’s. It’s not yet clear from this prototype whether the tailgate will revert to a traditional upward-opening design, or retain the side-opening layout of the full-size Defender. But whichever it is, the cabin should yield impressive interior space considering the car’s footprint.

Of course, the Defender isn’t the only rough and tough SUV on the market at the minute. There are plenty of 4x4s to choose from on the Auto Express Buy A Car, service from the Toyota Land Cruiser to the Dacia Duster. The Defender Sport will be following in the footsteps of other compact Land Rover products including the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque which are currently selling from £9,000 and £8,000 respectively on our used car sales portal. 

What will power the new Defender Sport?

Under the skin, the new Defender Sport will likely adopt the brand-new Electrified Modular Architecture (EMA) with production taking place at JLR’s plant in Halewood - which received a £500m investment to cater to upcoming EVs. The electric motors for EMA-based cars will be produced in Wolverhampton. 

Speaking of motors, the Defender Sport will almost certainly come with a dual-motor set up as standard to provide four-wheel drive and judging from our experience of the new Range Rover Electric (which sits on a variant of the ICE Range Rover’s platform), the Defender Sport should be pretty capable off-road. 

Forthcoming Velar and Evoque models are also expected to make use of the EMA platform, too. The former has already been spotted flaunting a very sleek silhouette and aggressive proportions, which will cater to Land Rover customers who are after a more distinctive or dynamic form of electric SUV. 

The Defender Sport will be fairly similar to the electric Evoque in size, possibly being more upright and SUV-shaped in its proportions - making it a conventional all-electric replacement for the Freelander, which Land Rover killed off way back in 2014. 

What other cars is Land Rover planning?

“We are looking at creating other vehicles within the Defender family. I would have thought by this time next Global Media Day we'll be clear on what we are comfortable with producing off EMA,” said JLR CEO, Adrian Mardell in his exclusive interview with Auto Express in 2023.

Unfortunately there’s no sense of whether Land Rover will water down its BEV strategy for this new model, despite stalling demand for electric cars around the world. 

And although the current Defender has been a sales success, an extra iteration of the iconic 4x4 could further eat into the sales of the Discovery, which has struggled to match the Defender’s appeal.

While JLR concentrates its efforts on Range Rover and Defender products, it may mean we’ll have to wait and see how the company approaches reinventing the Discovery - although it claims that EMA is flexible enough to accommodate a three-row, seven-seat family vehicle.

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