New Land Rover Defender Sport: electric Freelander successor has the BMW iX3 in its crosshairs

Land Rover is about to reveal its all-new ‘baby’ Defender, featuring all-electric powertrains and a chunky, rugged design. The company has toyed with a smaller version of the Land Rover Defender for years, but only now is the model – on a new platform – getting close to its public introduction.

Designed to sit in the Land Rover range underneath the existing Defender in both price and stature, the baby Defender will in effect act as a replacement for the long-running Discovery Sport. 

The new model in the Defender family is critical for JLR, joining a big-selling segment at a time when the company’s profits have been hit from every angle. So not a moment too soon, prototypes have been spotted testing in near-production form, giving us our first look at how Land Rover’s designers will transform the Defender into a smaller package.

As our exclusive images show, we expect the new baby Defender will have a boxy and upright shape, but there will be a few key changes over its big brother. These include thinner front lights and a sleeker angle to the nose, making it less bluff than we’re used to on a Defender.

Black-coloured lower bumpers and wheelarches will give it an off-roader look, and our pictures show the car fitted with rugged-looking wheels and off-road tyres. However, just as with the full-sized Defender, buyers will also be able to choose a more road-biased look, with larger wheels and body-coloured panels. 

Land Rover knows its customers love customising their cars, so contrasting roof colours, decal packs, wheelarch extensions and off-road gear such as chunky roof racks will all be part of the offering. 

What platform will underpin the new baby Defender?

The baby Defender will differ from its big brother largely in terms of proportions, which come courtesy of a new EMA platform. Unlike the full-sized model, which runs combustion engines lengthwise under the bonnet, the new electric architecture is packaged more efficiently. This is better for cabin space, but means having a longer front overhang. 

The wheelbase is also long in context to the car’s overall length, but like the Defender 90 and 110, it has a very short rear overhang. The car’s windscreen is upright, and while the rear glass in the tailgate isn’t quite vertical, there are some aero devices at the side that will make it appear so. The tailgate will be side-opening, though, and while there’s no spare wheel attached on the prototype we spied, there’s a good chance we’ll see one on the production car. 

Inside, expect a more digitised take on the relatively simple and hard-wearing full-sized Defender. Displays will grow in size, and they’ll introduce a new user interface that will also be found on JLR’s future models. There will only be two rows of seating, with no seven-seat option. However a sixth jump seat between the driver and front-seat passenger could be integrated. 

As was confirmed in 2023, the EMA platform will not be available with any form of combustion or hybrid powertrain, meaning the baby Defender will be an EV only. It will feature a flat pack of batteries under the floor with a dual-motor electric powertrain. 

The new platform will mean a new battery pack, which we expect will sit somewhere around the 70-90kWh mark. It could eventually be available in various sizes across different models in the JLR group, including the new Range Rover Velar, but the baby Defender will likely stick with just one battery size to start. 

With such an upright body, efficiency is not expected to be the new car’s strongest asset. It should have a range around the 300-320-mile mark, given the battery size and latest e-motor technology. 

Despite running on volts, the baby Defender will still be four-wheel drive, and come with most of the off-road capability expected from the brand. Its overall proportions will limit things such as the approach and departure angles, but we do expect a full Terrain Response system to be available. 

Land Rover will also take full advantage of the electric powertrain for off-roading, with the ability to meter out power more precisely to the front and rear wheels than is possible with a combustion engine. Elements including locking differentials could be fitted at the axles, but with no mechanical connection between them, a centre-differential is no longer required. 

The company is expected to reveal the new model next year, but sales aren’t expected to start until the beginning of 2027. Rivals will include anything from high-end versions of mainstream SUVs such as the Jeep Compass or Skoda Enyaq, right up to the new generation of luxury SUVs like the BMW iX3 or Mercedes GLC with EQ Technology. What no rival offers, however, is serious off-road ability. Until Jeep’s much larger Recon arrives, Land Rover will have the all-electric off-road market to itself. 

Pricing will start somewhere in the high £40,000 to £50,000 mark, putting the new car below entry-level variants of the full-sized Defender. However, Land Rover hasn’t been shy with pricing in the past, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see high-spec versions rise to quite a bit more than that.

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 via 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 £42,000 and £41,000 respectively. 

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.

Our dealer network has 1,000s of great value new cars in stock and available now right across the UK. Find your new car…