Just the Facts:
LONDON — Land Rover will show a Defender concept at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show.
The company, now controlled by India's Tata Group, considers this car vital because it's where the brand sprang from after World War II, even if most of the business these days is centered on more luxurious vehicles.
The current Defender dates to 1983 and is a direct descendant of the original 1948 Land Rover Series I.
The business plan for — and the extent of — the new-generation Defender family is the challenge.
Land Rover may elect to develop a new platform with a separate chassis for the next Defender, allowing a wide variety of vehicle types, as with the current model. Or the company could use an adapted, complicated and cost-reduced LR3 chassis. Expect some clever ways of achieving body modularity (to get station wagons, crew-cabs, pickups and a military version) without costing a fortune and with better finish.
Company planners have categorized the potential SUV market as luxury, leisure and utility, and they're working on how the Defender can score a bigger slice of the utility market and make money without the economies-of-scale benefit and with the grip Toyota and others have on the market.
Land Rover ultimately may have to take a premium utility stance with the new Defender, and hope that the style and depth of competence will allow a higher price.
The company also will have to get reliability licked once and for all — a constant sticking point in the U.S. as well as the home market.
Land Rover reckons it needs to sell 60,000-80,000 units annually to make the program pay. Military sales are attractive because of the parts business. Last year, it sold 18,000 Defenders.
Inside Line says: The company is mulling a fourth plant, possibly in China, for Land Rover manufacture. China is now its second biggest market, behind the U.K. and ahead of the U.S.
- Land Rover will show a Defender concept at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, as it mulls a replacement for the current model.
- Land Rover considers this car vital because it's where the brand sprang from after World War II, even if most of the business these days is centered on more luxurious vehicles.
- Land Rover may elect to develop a new platform with a separate chassis for the next Defender, allowing a wide variety of vehicle types, as with the current model.
LONDON — Land Rover will show a Defender concept at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show.
The company, now controlled by India's Tata Group, considers this car vital because it's where the brand sprang from after World War II, even if most of the business these days is centered on more luxurious vehicles.
The current Defender dates to 1983 and is a direct descendant of the original 1948 Land Rover Series I.
The business plan for — and the extent of — the new-generation Defender family is the challenge.
Land Rover may elect to develop a new platform with a separate chassis for the next Defender, allowing a wide variety of vehicle types, as with the current model. Or the company could use an adapted, complicated and cost-reduced LR3 chassis. Expect some clever ways of achieving body modularity (to get station wagons, crew-cabs, pickups and a military version) without costing a fortune and with better finish.
Company planners have categorized the potential SUV market as luxury, leisure and utility, and they're working on how the Defender can score a bigger slice of the utility market and make money without the economies-of-scale benefit and with the grip Toyota and others have on the market.
Land Rover ultimately may have to take a premium utility stance with the new Defender, and hope that the style and depth of competence will allow a higher price.
The company also will have to get reliability licked once and for all — a constant sticking point in the U.S. as well as the home market.
Land Rover reckons it needs to sell 60,000-80,000 units annually to make the program pay. Military sales are attractive because of the parts business. Last year, it sold 18,000 Defenders.
Inside Line says: The company is mulling a fourth plant, possibly in China, for Land Rover manufacture. China is now its second biggest market, behind the U.K. and ahead of the U.S.
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