Land Rover has confirmed that it will stop production of the current Defender by the middle of the decade, writes Brian Byrne.
The car is the icon of the brand, reflecting the original Land Rover car built in 1948. But it now sells in very small numbers.
A replacement may be built on the new aluminium architecture used by the latest Range Rover family, rather than the steel-based DC100 Concept shown at Frankfurt in 2011.
Almost 2m Defenders in its various guises have been sold.
Meanwhile, it is believed that the Freelander name will be dropped when a replacement for the small Land Rover is debuted next year, in favour of using the Discovery name in an extended family of vehicles bearing the nameplate.
The Freelander replacement may be seen in concept form at the Geneva Motor Show, and go on sale in early 2015.
