The sensational 2020 Land Rover Defender is soon to go hybrid in India
It has been quite some time since the all new Defender got a Plug In Hybrid version unveiled globally. The vehicle has so far managed to turn quite a number of heads internationally and now Jaguar Land Rover India seems to have gotten as ambitious as to open the bookings for the car here, pointing at an upcoming domestic debut. The Defender PHEV, or the Defender P400e as it is officially addressed, would be the maiden hybrid offering from the British marque here. You would get to have the hybrid Defender in the SE, HSE, X Dynamic and X variants and obviously in the 110 body style. Before you would want to head to the Land Rover website to book yours, let us tell you what we know of the car so far.
Powertrain
With almost everything remaining unchanged on the styling front, the key talking point and the major change on the Defender P400e is its powertrain. It has the 2.0L Ingenium petrol engine from the standard car mated beautifully to a 105 kW electric motor, putting out a combined 404 PS of power (300 PS from the petrol engine and 104 PS from the motor alone) and a good 640Nm of torque. This is good enough to make the SUV sprint to 100 kmph from a standstill in 5.6 seconds. The speed maxes out at a good 209 km/h. The vehicle even has an all-electric range of 40+ kilometers…
The electric motor gets powered by a 19.2 kWh Lithium ion battery pack that could either be charged by a 15A wall socket or a 7.4 kW AC wall box, which would be provided by the company as a complementary offering. Even more interesting is the fact that the Defender hybrid could also be charged using a DC fast charger, wherein you could fill in as much as 80% of its battery in just 30 minutes. The same would take a good 2 hours time if done through the AC wall box charger.
Serious improvements have been made in the performance and fuel efficiency of the Defender 110 with the incorporation of the plug-in hybrid tech into it. While the 0-100 figures have improved by almost a second, the fuel efficiency too has had good leaps ahead.
Changes In Practicality/Cabin Experience
While most of the things inside the cabin remain unaffected by the transition, there are a few bits that the hybrid Defender misses out on, owing to its electric genes. Firstly, it can never be specced with seven seats! The hybrid system has its battery pack mounted towards the rear, where the regular car’s boot and the third row would have been. Thus, there is a decent reduction in the space available there, thereby wiping off even the distant possibility of having a third row. The same has also eaten into the boot capacity by a good 150 liters, making the figures now tip the scale at 2127 liters.
Off-Road Capability
Enthus do have a reason to rejoice here, as the off-road capability of the Defender hybrid has been left untouched by the powertrain updates, or at least that’s what Jaguar Land Rover has told us! The hybrid mechanism has not made the car shed its ground clearance, nor has it messed with the angles. Thus the P400e is claimed to be as capable as the regular Defender when it comes to handling terrains. Land Rover even claims it to have the same 900 mm of water wading capability as the regular car, despite the complex electronics onboard. But, the Defender PHEV lags slightly on the towing front, as it can only tow up to 3000 kilograms, while the regular car can do up to 3500 kilos.
Price And Deliveries
While there is no clue of its prices yet, the Land Rover Defender PHEV is hoped to start reaching the Indian buyers by Q1, FY 2021-22. Apparently, the Defender PHEV would be followed by the launch of the all electric Jaguar I Pace SUV. JLR sure has a number of hybrid/electric offerings lined up for India…
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