Race to bring competing Land Rover Defenders to Dubai
In Dubai, as in the rest of the Gulf, there are many off-road enthusiasts who want to use their 4×4’s in the rough terrain of the sand dunes, mountains and deserts.
End of an era
Land Rover repairs specialists were sad to see the iconic Land Rover Defender, which had been with us for nearly seventy years, being phased out early in 2016.
Because of its ancient underpinnings, the Defender hasn’t been sold in the USA for over twenty years and the impossibility of getting it through the next round of European safety legislation was the final nail in its coffin.
But in a few years’ time, there could be two ‘Defenders’ arriving on Dubai’s shores.
Land Rover’s replacement
The official replacement is said to be coming in 2019 but so far there have been no indications as to its style or capabilities. The suspicion is that the replacement will follow the modern luxury SUV trend rather than the pure low-tech off-road utility vehicle that the original Land Rovers and Jeeps represented.
The only clues so far are that it will be Land Rover’s most high-tech car yet and the style will not follow the generally badly received DC100 concept unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
The upstart pretender
As soon as the Defender ceased production, businessman Jim Ratcliffe tried to negotiate a deal with Land Rover to keep Defender production going under licence. The UK-based billionaire is CEO of Ineos, a multi-national chemical manufacturer, one of the richest people in the UK and a keen Defender enthusiast.
Land Rover weren’t interested, stating it wanted to protect the Defender’s legacy. In fact, in an unrelated move, Land Rover recently won a High Court case in the UK to prevent Canadian manufacturer Bombardier using the Defender name on a quad-bike styled off-road utility vehicle range.
True to the original
Land Rover’s reluctance meant Ratcliffe had to change tack. So in February, he announced plans to build a completely new vehicle, which would hint at the style and capabilities of the original Defender. Feasibility studies have been carried out and the intention is to spend millions designing the car and building a production facility, which Ratcliffe hopes to site in England.
Ratcliffe’s new vehicle will not take the ‘soft-roader’ approach of modern SUVs but go back to the Defender’s roots. He stated that he wants to “build the world’s purest 4×4 and we are aiming at explorers, farmers and off-road enthusiasts across the world”.
New challenges for our auto repair shop
If Ratcliffe’s project goes ahead, estimates of first deliveries are currently 2020. So the official Defender is likely to arrive in Dubai first, but it could be close.
Whoever wins the race, we’ll be looking forward to new challenges for our 4×4 repairs facility.
