The new Land Rover Defender is currently one of our favorite SUVs. Since it was unveiled in 2019, and hit our local market in 2020, not a day goes by without seeing one of these beauts on the road. Good looking and extremely capable, we recently had the chance to sample the British marquees plug-in hybrid model dubbed the 110 P400e X-Dynamic HSE.
Off the bat, the Defender looks pretty good. Our tester was finished in a rather classy Hakuba Silver and sporting optional extras such as extended black exterior pack, 22-inch black wheels, and body coloured spare wheel cover (housing an optional 22-inch full-size spare). We’re honestly yet to find someone who doesn’t like the Defender in terms of styling, if you don’t, we think you’re the problem (chuckles in Defender).
Stepping inside the Defender, we must say it’s a pretty good mashup between luxury and ruggedness. There’s plenty of soft touch materials and hard plastics for when the kids have too much snacks to plaster around the cabin. Standard features include a moon roof, all-round leather seats, touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and a digital instrument cluster.
When it comes to practicality, the Defender has that in abundance. The cabin is quite roomy with plenty of legroom and head room, as well as a large boot which comes in at 499 litres (423 litres less due to the battery pack) and 1,946 litres with the seats down. Practically extends to big door bins for drinks and smaller items as well as abundance of USB ports. One negative I have about the interior is the bag used for the charging cables, for such a premium SUV, the bag should at least look a bit classier. Overall, it’s a stunning place to be in.
The Defender P400e is powered by a combination of a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and electric motor. The engine churns out 221 kW of power, whilst the electric motor produces 105 kW and to which combined has a total output 297 kW and 640 Nm of torque. Power is sent to all four wheel eight-speed auto.
Fitted with a 19.2 kWh battery, Land Rover claims that the P400e is good for a claimed electric range of 51 km. However, we realistically found ourselves getting around 41 km on a charge. We guess it all boils down to your lifestyle. If you’re closer to your destinations from your residence, it’s a huge advantage. Longer distances aren’t as bad when the battery is fully charged. Land Rover claims 2.8 l/100km, and that’s easily achieved, given that the battery is fully charged. During our stint with the battery depleted, we saw the P400e hover around the 10.0 l/100km which is not too bad for a car that weighs 2,545 kg.
Driving the P400e is one of life’s greater joys. You sit nicely propped on the comfy leather seats as you wafted along thanks to standard air suspension. We do warn you not to take corners at race pace as the SUV high center of gravity play majorly against it. The Defender is a well-known beast off-road. Off-road features several drive modes such as Mud-Ruts, Sand, Rock Crawl, Wade, Grass Gravel Snow, Comfort and Eco to tackle whatever you throw at it and lastly its impress 360-degree cameras.
The Land Rover P400e offers the best of both worlds even though the world is going fully electric. A plug-in hybrid such as this makes sense for a person who does a 9-5 during the week and enjoys a drive to the Kruger when the opportunity permits. Range anxiety is never an issue, you know when the battery is depleted, you still have the internal combustion engine to keep you going for quite a while. Pricing for the Land Rover Defender 110 P400e X-Dynamic HSE starts from R2,135,900.
