Originally Posted by 
JDNSW
				 
			Whether the underbody shielding will withstand impacts from large rocks may be a question, and also there is the potentially series issue of these underbody shields accumulation vegetable matter that becomes a serious fire risk when doing a lot of driving through dry grass. 
One of the issues not often thought about with this sort of design is that with a solid axle suspension, the ground clearance (typically) remains the same at full suspension deflection, for example when hitting a dip at high speed. With independent suspension, this is not the case.
I experienced this many years ago in a Citroen ID. High ground clearance with the suspension on high, and very good suspension encouraged high speed on a road similar to mine. The result was that the shield under the inboard front brakes hit a rock, in turn hit the edge of the disk, and broke the gearbox outrigger casting.
And I have seen any number of independently suspended cars and utes with holes in the sump.
This does not mean it is not possible to design an independent system that is not vulnerable to damage - just that it is a lot harder, and one wonders whether this new model has succeeded. Experience with the D3/4 has no doubt provided a lot of data, but these do not usually get the thrashing that work vehicles do.