The Defender’s silhouette has been extended by 340 mm at the rear in order to accommodate an extra row of seats. Theater-style seating provides better comfort, while a second row that slides and folds forward allows easy access to the third row. For added comfort, there’s a new, larger 11.4-inch touchscreen powered by Land Rover’s Pivi Pro infotainment system, climate control vents across all rows of seats, and a panoramic sunroof with a second sunroof above the third row.

Outside, as not to compromise the Defender’s departure angle, designers have given it a boat tail-style lift. Along with the generous 28.5-degree departure angle, the LED lighting units have also been tweaked. Access to the cargo area is unchanged, while a body-color hard-shell cover for the spare wheel is available. Unique to the Defender 130 is a new exterior color: Sedona Red.

For the Philippine market, the Defender 130 comes with the D300 diesel. This six-cylinder engine makes 300 horsepower and 650 Nm of torque. Other engine options including a six-cylinder gasoline engines (P400) with 400 horsepower and 550 Nm of torque will be an available option in the future.

Every Defender 130 is fitted with Electronic Air Suspension with Adaptive Dynamics and Land Rover’s advanced Terrain Response system for unrivalled all-terrain capability.

The Electronic Air Suspension system allows for up to 430 mm of articulation, with 71.5 mm of additional lift at the front (73.5mm at the rear) in off-road height to clear obstacles and assist when wading of up to 900 mm.

The foundations for the Defender’s all-conquering all-terrain capability rely on Land Rover’s aluminum-intensive monocoque D7x architecture. With a torsional rigidity of 25kNm/Degree, the Defender is three times more rigid than traditional body-on-frame designs and features the basis for the all-independent air suspension, twin-speed transfer box and Intelligent all-wheel drive system.

The 2023 Land Rover Defender D130 starts at P 12.190 million inclusive of a P 300,000 accessory pack which adds fixed side steps, deep-sided rubber mats, and load space rubber mats (base price is P 11.890 million).