Land Rover Defender becomes the brand's best-selling model
- The new generation Land Rover Defender was launched in 2019. Larger than its predecessor (whose origins date back to 1948), the new Defender is no longer made at the British site in Solihull (where the Range Rover, Range Sport and Range Velar remain produced), but at the Slovakian site in Nitra where the Discovery is also produced.
- While the old Defender was the least sold model of the Land Rover brand since the introduction of the Range Rover in 1970, the new Defender managed to become the best-selling model of the brand within three years. However, without much distance, since its production will reach 60,000 units by 2022, while the other models of the brand this year range between 20,000 and 40,000 units, distributed as follows: 40,000 units of Range Evoque, 38,000 of Range Rover, 36,000 of Range Rover Sport, 30,000 of Range Velar and 20,000 of Discovery Sport. Only the Discovery is left behind with 5,000 units produced in 2022.
- Looking at the production volumes of Land Rover models between 2019 and 2022, apart from Defender, which has managed to win back some of its customers, we find that all models have seen a decline in sales: Discovery Sport (-76,000 units), Range Sport (-40,000 units), Range Evoque (-32,000 units) and Discovery (-30,000 units).
- Overall, Land Rover production has lost 147,000 units between 2019 and 2022, despite the introduction of the new Defender. This represents a 39% drop, which remind the sales decline of the Jaguar brand (which, like Land Rover, is part of the Tata Motors Group). As with Jaguar, Land Rover's transition to electric cars will be a difficult one, as both brands are in the upper price range. Prices could become extremely high. Currently, a Defender is sold from 70,000 to 140,000 euros depending on the version, to which a malus (CO2 tax) is added in many European countries (e.g. 40,000 euros in France).