2026 Land Rover Defender upgrade brings more V8 options, new tech, design tweaks

The Land Rover Defender is receiving a range of updates for model year 2026, ranging from larger screens to wider V8 engine availability.

Pricing for the 2026 Defender lineup will be announced in June 2025, ahead of first local deliveries in October.

All Defender 90, 110 and 130 variants gain a new headlight design plus new front and rear bumpers, and flush rear lights with smoked lenses.

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All variants get new gloss black Defender-branded wheel centre caps, plus a gloss black grille bar.

There’s also a new 22-inch diamond-turned dark grey alloy wheel design, as well as additional accessories such as a black-finish Expedition roof rack and cross bars.

Deployable and fixed side steps will be available, along with an integrated air compressor for the Defender 130.

There will also be a new Borasco Grey and Woolstone Green exterior finishes, plus a new Sargasso Blue finish exclusive to the high-performance OCTA.

The OCTA also gets Textured Graphite exterior accents and available Chopped Carbon Fibre exterior and interior accents, including an optional 4500kg-rated winch.

Inside, there’s a larger 13.1-inch infotainment touchscreen, up from 11.4 inches, while the dash-mounted shifter has been “ergonomically repositioned”.

A revised centre console incorporates a sliding section that allows you to conceal small items in a closed cubby, while removeable side pockets are optional.

In big news under the bonnet, a supercharged 5.0-litre petrol V8 engine, referred to as P425, replaces the P400 3.0-litre turbo-petrol inline six in the Defender 90 and 110.

This produces 313kW of power and 550Nm of torque, up from 294kW in the engine it replaces (if with an identical torque figure), and it propels the Defender 90 to 100km/h in a claimed 5.6 seconds.

The Defender 110 also gains the option of the D250 six-cylinder mild-hybrid 3.0-litre turbo-diesel, producing 183kW and 570Nm. This is offered exclusively in S trim with standard 19-inch alloy wheels and electronic air suspension.

This joins the D350 turbo-diesel six and the P400e plug-in hybrid petrol, as well as the P635 twin-turbo V8 in the OCTA.

The Defender 90, in contrast, is offered exclusively with D250 diesel and P425 petrol powertrains.

Newly available on the Defender range is adaptive off-road cruise control, allowing the vehicle to maintain a set speed while off-road, leaving the driver to concentrate on steering.

A driver attention monitoring system with a driver-facing camera is optional.

The Defender is far and away JLR’s best seller in Australia. A total of 1277 examples have been delivered so far this year to the end of April, almost twice as many as the second-placed Range Rover Sport (693 examples).

Stay tuned to CarExpert for more coverage of the updated 2026 Defender.

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