Thread: The "New" Defender, ...Your Thoughts?

It would have to be hybrid if electric. A full electric would be useless outside the city. Tesla's model x looked good on top gear but a 250 mile range dependant on a long charge and perfect conditions is no where near good enough for a go anywhere vehicle. Sure they have super chargers that can do it in 30 mins but you can't take those in a jerry can. Solar charge, hahahahaha .... fine to run your fridge but you'll have to camp for a year with the fridge off to get a full charge on the cars immense power pack.

And then there's the weight of the battery pack, it's ever decreasing capacity. Forget towing 2 ton 1000km with the AC on.

No, let's get real. Even a hybrid defender with all electric 4wd running gear would be mighty ambitious for 2018 when you consider its got to be able to complete long hot corrugated runs through the desert, cross rivers and sit in mud.

And as for all electric semis hauling big tons around Australia..... report back in 2030!

I loved the top gear declaration of a new dawn. about time! But it's been said before, as far back as the 80s and here we are still waiting for the electric revolution. It's inevitable now, but I think diesel is going to own long haul for a while yet.

Originally Posted by steane

400,000 pre orders held. US$35,000. Bottom of the range Tesla.

It's the future and any vehicle currently on the drawing board is going to have to address this future.

4 years now is like 40 years back in 1950.

You don't need to convince me that EVs are going to be a major part of the automotive landscape in the future, but there is a long way to go - particularly with the established brands. Tesla are doing some great things, but it all needs to be kept in perspective. The company has only produced 125,000 cars in it's history, and is losing $4000 for every car it sells. It has never made a profit.

As a mass producer of affordable vehicles, it remains totally unproven. Ambitious and utterly fantastic, but unproven.

Those 400,000 pre-orders for the Model 3 were also from a fully refundable $1500 deposit, and the $35,000 is subject to change by the vehicles release (which is already looking like it'll be delayed until 2019). There are significant supply chain challenges to deal with. There's a long road ahead.

I think the road is a lot shorter than you think Andrew, but we'll see over the next few years.

The Tesla pre-orders were (for me) more an indicator of public interest and acceptance of what the future of the automobile is.

My view is still that any vehicle on the drawing board now (even compared to two or three years ago) is on there at an unprecedented time of wholesale change in the history of the automobile and we shouldn't think it will just be another one like the other ones.

It's a very interesting time to be alive. I think we are going to straddle two very distinct and different times in automotive history.

Originally Posted by steane

If you can, watch episode 3 of the current series of TopGear (which I am quite enjoying tbh). They drive the Tesla Model X. It has a range of 250 miles, can be charged in 30 minutes at one of their quick charge points and it out drags a Dodge Challenger Hellcat (700hp) EASILY.

It will also drive itself (mostly) and Tesla say in autonomous mode it is significantly safer than when being driven by a human.

This is today.

5 years from now the price will be halved, the range tripled and it will be fully autonomous.

For trucks it will be easy compared to cars. It makes sense for trucks to be autonomous and electric. They have way more options to package batteries on a truck than a car. Give it a few years and we'll start seeing them here.

This is all going to happen a lot quicker than most people are thinking IMO.

Once nations start legislating against internal combustion engines it will be be electric everything. And that legislating is already underway.

I heard from a source that I trust that planning is already underway for autonomous vehicles in Melbourne and the city will become a conventional car free zone. The plan is to expand that zone further out over time into the suburbs. No person will drive cars in these areas.

The younger generations don't get hung up on vehicles and vehicle ownership like we do. A car is just an appliance and a means of getting around. A very experienced industry expert that I know well (ex VACC currently an industry journo and editor of one of the larger auto sites) believes that vehicle ownership will largely disappear in the coming years. People will hold up their smart phone to hail vacant autonomous cars and they'll take you where you want to go, including between major cities or on a family holiday. Hence the big car makers buying ride sharing businesses now.

This is the world that JLR has to design their new Defender for, not the world we live in right now.

Autonomous cars scare me,one little glitch and your a passenger,look at how many recalls for faulty electrics there are for vehicles now. Pat

Originally Posted by cuppabillytea

I agree, both rationally and sentimentally, with most of that, except that I don't think the defender replacement well be a simplified version of the higher end models. I think it will be an entirely new platform from which the new higher end models will take their form.
As I said in another thread a while ago now, It could be all electric in at least one form, with a motor in each hub. It could be based, not on a Ladder Frame Chassis, but a collection of pods, upon which all the suspension load trays, etc, could be mounted. It could have torsion bar, pneumatic or Hydraulic suspension or a combination of any or all of these. The Skins, Crumple Zones, etc could be added or subtracted bolt ons, rather than Integral parts of the Body.
It could be something completely and utterly different to anything yet produced. Although nothing I have mentioned here is anything new and some of my train of thought comes from my old Rover 2,000 SC. which was built in the 60s.

And LR have a history of building completely different vehicles,the Range Rover,one of maybe 4 vehicles ever made that re-wrote the book on vehicle design. Pat

Originally Posted by steane

I believe the tech has leap-frogged the old trickle down way of doing things. With disruptors like Tesla and Google heavily invested in the car industry, and car buyers wanting change, it's never going to be the same again.

https://www.teslamotors.com/en_AU/model3

400,000 pre orders held. US$35,000. Bottom of the range Tesla.

It's the future and any vehicle currently on the drawing board is going to have to address this future.

4 years now is like 40 years back in 1950.

Tesla are city vehicles only,look past the hype and think about were you go and what you do in your current one.Whats the range towing a boat/camper etc as a starting point. Pat

Originally Posted by steane

I think the road is a lot shorter than you think Andrew, but we'll see over the next few years.

The Tesla pre-orders were (for me) more an indicator of public interest and acceptance of what the future of the automobile is.

My view is still that any vehicle on the drawing board now (even compared to two or three years ago) is on there at an unprecedented time of wholesale change in the history of the automobile and we shouldn't think it will just be another one like the other ones.

It's a very interesting time to be alive. I think we are going to straddle two very distinct and different times in automotive history.

There will be two distinct themes in automotive history,the people driving electric vehicles with flat batteries being picked up by people driving diesel/petrol ones.. Pat

Originally Posted by Andrew86

...
[*]Be the most comfortable, technologically advanced Defender ever.

...

If it came with a USB point in the dash, that'd be the most technologically advanced Defender ever, so they don't have to do too much there to achieve that!