According to Autocar, the current Land Rover Defender range will be produced until 2017, at least. Quoting an internal source from Land Rover, it seems that a recent change in the legislation will allow the British manufacturer to keep the model in production a little longer than what they thought. A new set of emissions regulation rules that was supposed to come into effect in 2015 would have meant the end for the Defender, but a ‘derogation’ has now postponed to whole thing to 2020. Then, the fact that a few years back the model was re-classified as ‘commercial vehicle’ might have played a part in that, too.

However, Land Rover plans to release a new short-paced version of the Defender in 2015 will not be affected by the change as both models will be on sale at the same time for a few years. The new Defender was anticipated at the last Frankfurt Motor Show by the DC100 Concept, a prototype powered by a 2.0 litre diesel engine coupled with 8-Speed automatic transmission and Start/Stop system. The concept car used a new generation Terrain Response system with new functionalities and was also equipped with Terrain-i and Wave Aid systems: the former suggests the driver alternative routes through the LCD screen placed in the middle of the dashboard, the latter measures water depth in front of the car before crossing.

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