Land Rover has released a fresh batch of images of its upcoming Defender, as the new model undergoes its final phase of testing ahead of a reveal later in 2019.

The photographs show the camouflaged Defender prototypes being put through all sorts of evaluations, over all manner of surfaces in various environmental conditions. Indeed, the firm says by the time the new model has been unveiled later in 2019, it would have undergone more than 45 000 individual tests.

The company also confirmed that while the new Defender (set to run on an all-aluminium platform, thus ditching the original’s ladder-frame chassis) has been “designed and developed” in the United Kingdom, it will be built at a recently opened manufacturing facility in Nitra, Slovakia.

The prototypes have been put to the test in the desert and the Arctic, with Land Rover also taking them through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. On-road dynamics were “honed” at the Nürburgring while all-terrain credentials were tested on the muddy roads of Eastnor, the rocky trails of Moab in Utah, and the sand dunes of Dubai.

Land Rover promises the new model will bring an “unparalleled breadth of capability and new levels of comfort and driveability” to the Defender family.

“In addition to the extensive simulation and rig testing, we’ve driven new Defender 1,2 million kilometres across all terrains and in extreme climates to ensure that it is the toughest and most capable Land Rover ever made,” said Nick Rogers, executive director for product engineering at Jaguar Land Rover.

Check out the images in the gallery above...

Original article from Car