Land Rover has revealed a few details about the next-generation Land Rover Defender, but has stopped short when it comes to details about when we’ll finally see it. Now it’s being reported that the new Defender will debut in production form at the end of 2018, before it goes on sale in 2019.

2013 Land Rover Defender

According to Autocar, the next Defender codenamed L663 will debut towards the end of 2018 as the centerpiece of Land Rover’s 70th anniversary celebrations. The big news is that the model will not debut as a concept and will instead be the final production version. Land Rover decided to not debut the Defender first as a concept, since other companies have decided to plagiarize its designs.

The new Defender will share its parts with the rest of the Land Rover lineup, but will be toughened up a bit to make it more off-road ready. Land Rover design boss Gerry McGovern also recently revealed that the new Defender will not have a retro design with only a few design cues pulled from the original. The new Defender will also preview Land Rover’s future since it will be the most high-tech Land Rover yet.

Source: Autocar