Land Rover Defender ute: No current plans, but the company would love one

Land Rover thinks that the Defender brand would lend itself nicely to a ute variant.

There are currently no plans for Land Rover produce a ute (or pick-up) variant of the Defender, but that hasn’t stopped the company from seeing potential in the idea.

Stuart Frith – chief engineer for the Land Rover Defender – told Drive that while it’s not something Land Rover is planning, he would “love to do” a ute variant of the Defender.

“It’s something that I would personally like to do, because I think the Defender brand would lend itself to a ute very much so. And we’ve seen that in the history of Defender in particular.”

Previous Land Rover Defender ute.

Historically, the original Land Rover Defender was available as a ute in all three formats: 90, 110 and long-wheelbase 130 variants.

The new Land Rover Defender is only available as a wagon, with the long-body Defender 130 recently joining the 90 and 110 variants. 

This news comes after Land Rover executive Nick Collins told Drive in 2021 there is a high level of “customer demand” for a ute variant of the Defender.

These digital illustrations by artist Theottle imagine what the Defender ute could look like if it ever comes to market.

2023 Land Rover Defender 130

Mr Frith also told Drive that after adding a third shift to the Defender’s production line in Slovakia (moving to a 24-hour production cycle), Land Rover has achieved “the right balance of supply and demand” with the Defender.

While keen Defender buyers in Australia have been forced to wait for up to nine months for an order to be fulfilled, Land Rover has only been able to run round-the-clock production at Nitra, Slovakia after securing steady and reliable supplies of key components like semiconductors.

“The third shift was really essential in many ways to satisfy the backlog of people waiting far too long, for our comfort, for the car they ordered some time ago.” Mr Frith said.

“There is always a balance between capacity to produce and demand. If you overcommit on capacity or you have too much capacity, you have got a fixed overhead that is difficult to manage.”

“And if your demand exceeds supply, then you are disappointing customers. There is a healthy balance there, which is the trick to a healthy business.”

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