Auto Channel

Land Rover has teamed with Dutch home and interior designer Piet Boon to create the Land Rover Defender Design Edition. This new limited edition adds several more subtle touches to try and add some innovation to a truck that launched almost sixty years ago. This is Boon's second edition for the company, his first being the Range Rover Sport Piet Boon Design Edition. Hence the vehicle's tagline, "Sometimes cooperation is timeless."

Modernizing the Defender, while retaining classic elements was the main idea behind this edition. The much heralded Boon said of the truck, "In my approach, I have the vehicle in contemporary finesse, and on the other hand I have chosen to use original materials to bring it back to the past."

Boon has added a black headliner to the Defender, and used aluminum for the console, handles, and buttons. Large stainless steel cases surround the headlights, to match the oversized stainless steel air intake. The Defender Design Edition has larger bumpers, more exterior lighting, with many lights also rimmed in black. Stainless steel badges with "PB-DEF" written on them are on the truck at various points.

The Land Rover Defender 90 comes standard with a turbocharged 2.4 liter four cylinder diesel engine, generating 122 horsepower and 360 nm torque. The vehicle has a six speed manual transmission, and permanent four-wheel drive standard. Factory options include a tilting glass roof, air conditioning, and ABS with traction control.

Only 20 Land Rover Defender Design Edition trucks will be produced, with a portion of all sales going to Drive Against Malaria. The charity provides mosquito nets and medicine to impoverished areas plagued by the disease. Total cost for the Land Rover Defender Design Edition is €56,900.