Brand building
Cameron wouldn’t be drawn on specific product plans beyond the brand’s first EV, but when asked how big a potential Defender line-up could become, he said: “Huge.”
That is likely to include multiple powertrain options given what Cameron called “the complexity of EV adoption”, which results in the level of customer demand lagging behind the expectation of legislators. That’s a challenge given Defender’s global footprint: a majority of its UK sales are currently diesel, while its biggest market is now the US, where electrification is firmly on the back burner.
“Our strategy is to offer as much choice for as long as we can,” said Cameron.
“Clearly with the Defender, because of the capabilities, toughness, the weight and the geometry of it, as long as we can keep selling petrol and diesel with hybridisation and other forms of interim technology, we’ll continue to do so.”
The Defender is currently offered with a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but that is built around a four-cylinder engine and has a limited electric range, because the D7 platform wasn’t designed for the technology. Cameron hinted that would change in time, saying: “We’re going to be relying on future generations and different architectures to expand those sorts of technologies.”
Notably, Cameron said Defender’s growing international focus could Influence its line-up: “Beyond the UK there are vehicle types that are absolutely suitable [for Defender in certain geographies. The US is now our biggest market, and there are product categories popular there we can absolutely bring Defender into.”
That suggests a revival of previous plans to develop a Defender pick-up given the size of that market in the US, although Cameron wouldn’t expand on specifics.
But he noted that growth could also come at the other end of the range, because “in Europe they need small cars for tight streets”.
He added: “The red line we’ve got to draw is that any future versions of Defender still have to have the same characteristics that every Defender needs. There’s no reason you can’t go smaller, bigger, longer, higher and still cover those bases.