Land Rover celebrates New Defender's 746,000 development testing miles

Land Rover has appointed today World Land Rover Day because that's when the first Series I greeted audiences at the 1948 Amerstam Motor Show. Consecrating the day, we have new images of the New Defender testing around the world. The fleet has covered nearly 746,000 miles in climes from 40-below in the Arctic to 122 degrees in the desert, tracking through Moab lowlands, 10,000-foot Colorado passes, Dubai dunes, and the Nürburgring.

The ultimate program will encompass 45,000 individual tests, the final phase to commence shortly in Kenya. Land Rover's partnered with Tusk Trust for the past 15 years, and will give the organization a prototype New Defender to work the 35,000-acre Borana Conservancy. What would really rock our boats is if Land Rover decided to test this truck with a return of the old-school Camel Trophy, but it appears that still isn't going to happen. We can dream.

Nothing appears to have changed on the camoed trucks since we last saw spy shots of the 110-inch long-wheelbase model in December 2018, and the 90-inch short-wheelbase version in November. To our eyes, this model looks more like a slightly lower Land Rover LR4 every time we see it, in mildly shorter and longer flavors. Nothing wrong with that — the LR4 was a good-looking truck, and square-edged boxes never go out of style.

The New Defender promises the "unparalleled breadth of capability" we expect from the brand, as well as "new levels of comfort and driveability." Just like the old Defender, the platform will play host to a number of variants serving niches, potentially including the return of the single-cab pickup. The world premiere takes place in September, but Land Rover's not certain if that means the Frankfurt Motor Show or an exclusive venue. Customer should be able to get behind wheels in early 2020.