Land Rover has apparently hit a speed bump with its plans to replace the venerable Defender with a similarly basic, ultra-tough workhorse beetle-crusher - because parent company Tata can no longer afford to come to the party after both its super-cheap Nano and Aria SUV flopped in the marketplace.
And that would also scupper plans for a new Jaguar Land Rover engine plant in India as well as a bakkie-based Tata SUV with a ladder chassis that would carry the Defender badge forward when fitted with Land Rover running gear.
NEXT DEFENDER LIKELY TO BE A STRIPPED-OUT DISCOVERY
Autocar quoted Land Rover brand director John Edwards as saying the new Defender would not be ready for production by 2015, even though the current defender will have to be phased out in that year because it can't be made to comply with future legislation.
Apparently the new Defender will now be based on the same all-aluminium PLA platform as the next-generation Discovery, it will be a lot less basic (and lot more expensive) than the current Defender and will be built in Solihull's aluminium body shop.
Which will leave the rough-'n-tough end of the segment (as well as the lucrative military market) to the Mercedes GL, Jeep Wrangler and the Japanese triumvirate of Toyota, Nissan and Isuzu.