Coming soon, Baby Defender

Land Rover’s new entry-level electric 4×4 looks on course for a 2027 launch.

Land Rover is gearing up to launch a long-mooted and highly anticipated smaller entry-level Defender as a crucial new model in its electric SUV portfolio. The rugged, compact 4×4 is rumoured to have been on the cards for several years and appeared in JLR’s product roadmap presentations.

According to recent news, this baby Defender will launch and arrive at dealerships in 2027.Although the company declined to discuss the new model, the name Defender Sport appears to have been added to the Land Rover website, albeit only viewable from a search engine. This moniker would make sense because the Sport nameplate has been used to signify JLR’s more road-focused versions, such as the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Sport.

Given the baby Defender’s apparent chunky proportions and off-road pedigree, it could even be positioned to pick up where the popular Freelander (not to be confused with the new JLR-Chery joint-venture Freelander EVs set to be made in China) left off after the Freelander 2 was replaced in the line-up by the Discovery Sport.

The timing of the car’s Arrival also makes sense because Mercedes-Benz is readying a new entry-level compact SUV based on the Defender’s G-Class rival, known internally at Mercedes as the ‘Little G’. The ‘Defender Sport’ will be a sibling to the next-generation Range Rover Evoque and Range Rover Velar – the latter – and all three will use the company’s new EMA drivetrains to boost appeal.

The ‘Defender Sport’ will be much more compact in all dimensions than the current combustion-engined L663-generation Defender model. Today’s full-sized platform. These models will be built at JLR’s Halewood plant on Merseyside, which is currently undergoing a £500 million upgrade to prepare it to produce EV.