Moving with the times

Way back in 1948, the Land Rover company launched a new concept: a "go anywhere" utility vehicle designed for farmers and people working in remote places.

It was designed for simplicity: the boast was that it could be repaired with nothing more than a hammer and a spanner. It was a huge success.

Over the intervening six decades the design has been tweaked from time to time, but the fundamentals have remained the same -- a hard-core utility vehicle whose 4-wheel drive remains pretty much unsurpassed.

Modern versions -- like this army spec vehicle (below) -- are recognisably the progeny of the original:

The Land Rover Defender (as it's now called) is available in long- and short-wheelbase versions, with a vast range of bodies, and, despite ferocious competition, particularly from Japanese manufacturers, can still be found in some of the most remote parts of the world:

These sort of places are the Defender's natural habitat:

... places where it can exploit its extraordinary off-road capability:

But the harsh fact is that the Defender has for years seen declining sales, its market mercilessly grabbed by other manufacturers who offer more "lifestyle"-oriented products (the SUV market for swanky 4x4s, which never leave the tarmac of Chelsea or Manhattan).

In that market, the Defender has virtually disappeared, not helped by the mechanics which were designed for times when fuel was much cheaper than it is today.

So Land Rover has announced it is at the start of a process to replace the Defender, something it aims to do by 2015.

And to stimulate debate (it knows how passionate the hard-core market is), it's produced a concept car, the DC100, which will be launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show:

The pair of images so far released show it to be a modern version, all boxy styling but with much smoother curves than the Defender. I certainly wouldn't want to clamber over the bodywork (something the current Defender expects).

The image in the mud suggests Land Rover is keen to keep hold of the off-road capability that is a core Defender asset in its utility market (if perhaps not so useful in down-town Westminster):

It's one of the most fascinating design challenges: how do you design a modern version of a design icon (whether the London Taxi, the London double-decker bus, or the Land Rover)? I'm fascinated to see if they can pull it off.