Land Rover Defender: Five key highlights of wilderness-conquering SUV

Land Rover Defender was officially launched in India earlier this month with the promise of being the most capable offering from the company ever. Defender has a rich lineage of several decades and is renowned the world over for its abilities on a wide variety of terrain. At a starting price point of ₹73.98 lakh for the 90 range, it may not win prizes for being an affordable offering but it is hardly gunning for mass acceptance either. What it does bring to the market here, however, is the capability to remain planted and offer comfort features within city limits and make mincemeat of much that stands in its way out in the wild.

Here are five key highlights of the new Land Rover Defender, the toughest-ever built by the company:

• Defender is based on a completely new D7X platform which, as per Land Rover, is the stiffest platform ever made by the company till date. The British carmaker also says that it has gone 'further and beyond' to develop the new Defender which has been tested for over 1.2 million kilometers with over 45,000 individual tests. "It is the toughest Land Rover ever made," claims the company.
• Defender sports a max payload of 900 kg and a massive wading depth of 900 mm. It also gets a completely overhauled Terrain Response 2 system and air suspension. The latter comes standard on the Defender 110.
• To aid its off-road prowess, the Defender gets an approach angle of 38 degrees, off-road breakover angle of 28 degrees (31 degrees on Defender 90) and off-road departure angle of 40 degrees.
• The seat options on the Defender ranges from five, six and even seven.
• Land Rover says that the cabin of the Defender is fully equipped to take care of comfort and connectivity needs. It comes with Pivi Pro infotainment system with over-the-air updates, a 12.3-inch all-digital instrument cluster, head-up display (HUD), 3D surround camera, USB or 12V charging point in every row, waterproof activity key, among other highlights.