I am pretty disappointed and if their decision was based on low range rover sales, I think they are making a miscalculation as I have personally spoken to several people who interested in the P400e for the defender.

Has JLR reported the fuel economy of the V8 anywhere? From the promo videos it sounds pretty sweet but its price point makes it a complete deal breaker for me and I am still torn on the performance of the p400 vs p300 for a defender model anyway.

 

JLR, the 1960s called, they want their Defender V8 back.

I would buy a Defender P400e as a daily driver with serious chops for vacation trips. Breathing is a priority for me and they should sell the P400e priced the same as the P400. That would likely make it their best selling car. The P400e electric range already covers most of my usual daily trips and it would be great if they could get it to 30 miles to qualify for certain government rebates etc.. The V8 is a toy, not a daily driver.

 

In the UK the price is almost the same, with the p400e £1000 more expensive. What's interesting is that you can no longer get the P400 engine on anything but the defender X and XS in the UK.

 

In the US the RRS P400e starts at $83K. The P400 is $84K.

 

I have a RR P400e, drove it for over a year. It is now listed for sale and I am driving a First Edition Defender 110. The electric only portion was barely usable as I got maybe 22 miles on a charge, then the car dropped 110hp to a basic v6 that sounded like it was always struggling to run. If they can improve the range it is a viable option but 20 miles is a joke IMO. I think they built it to satisfy some European countries requirements that a car be electric to operate in the center of the city. It checked the box on that but was not really a viable for everyday electric driving.

 

Test drove a 110 P300 S for the first time today. Planning for a 90 but the dealer won't have one on the lot for two weeks and it's a P400 they're getting so probably not within my budget but I will test it to compare shorter wheelbase / power etc.

So first impressions on the 110 and mind you I'm leasing a 2018 Q5 as my daily, the P300 has plenty of power for me off the line. Honestly no complaints as far as the engine goes, this was a pleasant surprise because if the engine were a letdown that would take the Defender out of my budget. I'm not going to be towing anyway so I think for me the P300 engine in the lighter 90 chassis will be plenty as a daily driver. The 110 chassis is large but I was surprised at how little it bothered me, years ago I drove a cargo van for a year or two as a daily so maybe I'm just used to a longer vehicle but yea this wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.

What I really liked, visibility out of the front is super nice, seating position is commanding, with long legs this position combined with the visibility is the best part of the vehicle for me. Steering has a good feel. Brakes I felt were fine, I know some reviews mentioned grabby and not the best feel I would kind of disagree for me the brakes exceeded my expectations. Cameras were really handy at the end of the test drive when I had to park it next to the curb I made use of the overhead view. Checked out the non-meridian audio, it seemed decent. I could live with the base but the meridian is not much extra.

So annoyances that kind of spoiled things and would take some getting used to:

The steering wheel, believe it or not I played around with this adjusting it for several minutes and did not find a position I liked compared with my Q5. If I grip it above the middle I feel like my grip is a bit too high, maybe not at 10:00 and 2 high but a little too close to that for my taste and if I want to grip 8:00 and 4 which is what i do a lot with the Q5 when just highway cruising then a lot of crap is in the way here, the middle is thick and those cutout areas below it are small, with larger hands it just didn't work for me. I could probably get used to it but the steering wheel was probably my #1 annoyance.

Seats were probably #2, they aren't uncomfortable it's just that there's so little side bolstering when turning the vehicle that my body was sliding around.

#3 the side mirrors, these are oddly almost distorted when I glance at them, the sizing seems ok but these would definitely take some getting used to. You would think the added visibility from the mirrors would be fine as they're so truck/van-like but I guess it's the way they seemed to present an almost limited / distorted view, was definitely an unexpected 'con'.

#4 Clear sight mirror, I felt this was a must have on all of my builds but now I'm not so sure, backing up I suppose it's handy, actual driving with it on was not good for me though, there's too much jitter and some sort of reflection going on here that I felt like it just didn't work for me, I might leave that off my build to be honest. Visibility with the regular mirror out the back window was not bad at all honestly.

 

It's also likely the reason for not bringing the MHEV diesels over either, which is a shame. They are getting good reviews in Europe and the Defender needs something to improve MPG over here.

That V8 model in the pipeline IMO is JLR's dream of biting into MB G-Wagen sales.

 

The P400 has the bigger grabby brakes, it's one of the reasons I chose to stick with the P300. Other main thing was I found the P300 more responsive and enjoyable to drive at city speeds, could definitely feel a delay on throttle inputs with the P400 that bugged me. The extra power was nice, but not impressive enough to outweigh the brakes/throttle response for me. Even if they were the same price I'd prefer the P300, just a bummer it limits you to the S trim.

 

Thanks, good info!

 

Got an update on my order, went in an submitted the 2022 model year changes yesterday, and today we finally got a build date assigned, projected delivery is August 6th. I'm in Vancouver, BC, and for anyone else in Canada I've attached the 2022 model year build sheet with canadian pricing on it. The options and changes seem identical to the US sheet.

Only changes I really made was just removing the comfort&convenience pack as the meridian audio is now standard. of course added the air suspension back and the bigger screen, also decided to change to black interior as it's all leather now. price ended up being around 1k more.