JLR opens Defender Classic V8 commissions to Australian buyers from about A$403,000

Australians can now order a Land Rover Defender Classic V8 through their local Land Rover dealer, with prices starting at £209,000 (about A$403,205) plus delivery fees and local taxes. JLR says each vehicle is hand-built at Defender Classic from an original UK-built Defender produced between 2012 and 2016, then "fully remastered from the ground up".

The starting figure is only the beginning of the bill. Once delivery charges and local taxes are added, the tally could approach half a million Australian dollars for an off-roader whose donor vehicles left Solihull more than a decade ago.

What the money buys

Every Classic Defender V8 uses a JLR-made 5.0-litre naturally aspirated petrol V8 rated at 298kW and 515Nm, compliant with EU5 emissions standards. It drives through an eight-speed ZF automatic, selectable four-wheel drive, a two-speed transfer case, heavy-duty front and rear differentials and a torque-biasing centre differential.

The chassis work is equally thorough: solid front and rear axles with Eibach coil springs and anti-roll bars, Bilstein telescopic dampers, and an upgraded braking package with four-piston Alcon calipers and 335mm front discs paired with 300mm rear rotors. The original recirculating-ball power steering is retained.

JLR frames the result as a blend of "meticulous craftsmanship with modern engineering enhancements while remaining true to the character of the original vehicle". That is the pitch the price has to justify, and at roughly five times the cost of a new Ineos Grenadier, the spiritual successor to the original Defender, buyers are paying for hand assembly and bespoke specification rather than outright capability.

Body styles, colours and the ordering process

The programme currently covers Defender 90 Station Wagon, Defender 90 Soft Top and Defender 110 Station Wagon donor body styles, with more variants to follow. Buyers can choose exterior paint colours, hood colours, interior materials and lifestyle accessories, and a Sunset Gold Defender Classic V8 90 Soft Top is pictured and listed as available for immediate delivery.

Configuration runs through Defender Classic's online configurator, backed by one-on-one support from specialists at Classic Works in Coventry, UK, and Essen, Germany. The Australian route is the dealer network, so the commissioning conversation starts at a local Land Rover showroom rather than online alone.

What is still unconfirmed

JLR's claim for the 0-100km/h time is cut off in the published material, so the official acceleration figure has not been confirmed here. Nor has JLR announced when Australian customer deliveries will begin: the only timing detail available is that the pictured Sunset Gold 90 Soft Top is offered for immediate delivery, without a stated market attached to that availability.

The Australian dollar figure of A$403,205 is a conversion of the £209,000 starting price, not a locally set retail price, and it excludes delivery fees and local taxes. Australian buyers should therefore treat the final on-road cost as an open question until their dealer quotes it.

Mahindra is roughly a year away from putting cars in UK showrooms, with three of its Oxfordshire-designed electric SUVs lined up to lead the launch, Autocar has learned. Early pricing suggests the Indian manufacturer will pitch at the upper end of the mainstream market, in similar territory to Cupra and DS.

The first of those cars is expected to be the BE 6, a dramatically styled electric SUV priced from around £41,000 to take on the Tesla Model Y, Ford Explorer and Renault Scenic. A larger XEV 9e, comparable in size to the BMW iX3 and Audi Q6, is tipped to sit above it at around £48,000.

A UK plan that stretches back a decade

Mahindra's UK ambitions are not new. The company entered the market in 2016 with the battery-powered e2o city car and outlined a strategy for a line-up of pure-electric models in the UK, where its Formula E team was already based. The e2o sold slowly and was dropped after a matter of months.

The plan was revived in 2022, when Mahindra revealed five electric SUVs styled at its newly opened Banbury design studio and confirmed it was targeting a European rollout. A year later it showed the chunky, Jeep-style Thar.E off-roader concept. Customer clinics have since taken place as the company works out its positioning and gauges commercial potential in the UK.

What the BE 6 and XEV 9e offer in India

Both models sit on Mahindra's self-developed Inglo EV platform. In India, the BE 6 is offered with 59kWh, 70kWh and 79kWh battery options, the largest sourced from China's BYD, for a claimed range of between 345 and 424 miles. Buyers there can choose between 225bhp and 278bhp rear-mounted motors. The XEV 9e shares the BE 6's platform and drivetrains.

Those range figures come from Mahindra's Indian claims and are not stated against a European test cycle, so they should not be read as directly comparable with WLTP figures for rivals.

UK specifications remain unconfirmed

Mahindra is understood to be targeting a simple line-up in Europe, with each model offered in just one mechanical specification, in the manner of Chinese brands Omoda, Jaecoo and Leapmotor. Which combination of motors and batteries it will export has not been announced.

That leaves the UK battery and motor specification for both the BE 6 and XEV 9e an open question. An undisguised BE 6 prototype has been spotted testing on public roads near Mahindra's Banbury base, which suggests homologation work is under way on UK-spec cars.

The single-spec approach is a sensible way for a new brand to keep costs and complexity down at launch, but it also narrows buyer choice to whatever Mahindra decides to homologate. Drivers who want the longest battery option may not get it.

Timing and what is still missing

Autocar understands Mahindra is around a year from showroom availability, with the launch reported as a 2027 UK entry. The identity of the third SUV in the trio has not been detailed.

Final UK pricing, official WLTP range and charging figures, and a firm on-sale date have not been announced. The £41,000 and £48,000 figures are described as early pricing information rather than confirmed list prices.