Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack disrupts supply chains
A crippling cyberattack forced Jaguar Land Rover to halt production for an extended period, creating cascading effects throughout its supplier network.
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Reinventing an icon is always a risky business. New Coke, the Apple III, Levi’s Type 1 jeans: All crashed and burned amid a mountain of marketing hype. So it’s perhaps understandable that JLR took decades to figure out how to do a replacement for the Land Rover Defender, the old-school off-roader with a heritage as storied as Jeep’s Wrangler and CJ models.
The original Defender, separate chassis, live axles, slab-sided bodywork around an industrial interior, was much loved. But the new Defender, unibody, independent air suspension, retro-modernist styling inside and out, is loved even more. In 2015, the last full year of its production, JLR sold about 10,000 old Defenders. Ten years later, the new Defender is JLR’s bestselling SUV, with sales this year on track to top 120,000 worldwide.
And JLR isn’t about to mess with success. Five years after its launch, our 2021 SUV of the Year has been given a minor facelift. Visual changes for the 2026 model year include flush rear lights with smoked lenses, a revised front headlight graphic, and the availability of new exterior colors, including Borasco Grey and Woolstone Green. Inside is a larger 13.1-inch central touchscreen sitting above a revised center console.
The rumbling 626-hp 4.4-liter V-8-powered Defender OCTA gets a textured graphite finish on the bumpers, hood, side vents and front undershield. It’s also now available in Borasco Grey, as well as an exclusive new halo color called Sargasso Blue. Chopped carbon-fiber interior accents will be available as an option, along with a Patagonia White matte wrap for the exterior. A new special edition, the OCTA Black, features black paint, black exterior accents and wheels, and a black interior.
The 110 lineup has been expanded with the addition of the 110 Trophy Edition, a one-year-only model that celebrates the grueling Camel Trophy extreme off-road events held from 1980 through 2000 in which competitors drove specially equipped Land Rover vehicles. The 2026 Defender Trophy Edition also previews a return of the event, though instead of advertising cigarettes, the new Defender Trophy competition, the final of which will be held in 2026, is partnering with African wildlife conservation charity Tusk.
Available in a modern take on the iconic Camel Trophy color scheme called Deep Sandglow Yellow or in dark Keswick Green, the Defender 110 Trophy Edition comes standard with a black roof, black-painted 20-inch steel wheels shod with all-terrain tires, a roof rack with a deployable ladder, an external side storage box, a raised air intake and mudflaps.
Any changes to the drive?
With no mechanical changes, the 2026 Defenders drive exactly as before. They’re quiet and comfortable on-road and extremely capable off it. The Trophy Edition’s mudflaps will noisily scrape the ground during extreme articulation events, but otherwise this Defender will go pretty much anywhere you point it without drama. The OCTA is fast and fun off-road, though not a true Baja buster like the Ford F-150 Raptor or Ram 1500 TRX, the rear suspension thumping heavily when this 5,700-pound SUV hits big bumps at speed.
That said, the OCTA’s trick 6D Dynamics suspension is much more compliant and comfortable than that of the regular Defender when wheeling at low speed in low range, and not just because the OCTA boasts longer wheel travel and better articulation. A version of the 6D Suspension setup, which features diagonally cross-linked shocks with separate comfort, jounce and rebound valves and can independently decouple each wheel in real time, is currently under development for the regular Defender lineup.
The Defender OCTA starts at $160,150, while the menacing Defender OCTA Black stickers for $170,550. The Defender 110 Trophy Edition is priced from $89,250.
Photos by Land Rover