Land Rover has announced the reveal date for the new Defender OCTA: July 3, 2024. The new spicy Defender variant competes in the high-performance off-roader space alongside Ford Raptors and Mercedes-Benz AMG G63. There’s more to come between now and July, but if you’re thinking about an OCTA, you have to get serious, because there are only 1,000 vehicles allocated for 2025 in North America.
The Defender OCTA is the most powerful and off-road-ready new Defender yet, incorporating technology from the new Range Rover Sport SV alongside new off-road-focused developments. The two flagship developments are both drawn from the Range Rover Sport SV: the twin-turbo mild-hybrid BMW-derived V8 engine, and the 6D Dynamics suspension technology, which replaces torsion roll bars with a hydraulic stability system. This controls both pitch and roll, which means that the OCTA (and Range Rover Sport SV) can remain almost perfectly level in any maneuver -- cornering, accelerating, or braking. (How that will translate to off-road scenarios, where flex is sometimes best, is going to be exciting to see.)
Alongside those systems, rumors are that OCTA has a wider track, bumped-out fender flares, giant Brembo brakes, and huge off-road tires. The lesser features will be teased out in the full reveal -- you gotta hold out for something -- but right now, the focus is on the breadth of the test program.
Land Rover says they have conducted 13,960 tests on top of the regular Defender testing program. (Credit where credit is due for accuracy, instead of rounding up to 14,000.) The testing program replicated large sectors of the vehicle's original 2018-19 test program, emphasizing how different the dynamics of the OCTA will be. In Germany, they took the vehicle around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, where many of the early spy shots came from. While it may seem alien to take a Defender around the 'Ring, it's proving more and more to be a popular testing location, since the iconic track is such a known quantity -- it's easy to compare dynamics and know where the vehicle will behave in certain ways. They also took it to the skid pads at Michelin's facility in Ladoux, France, to test wet asphalt performance.
On the off-road side, the program was the usual tried-and-true suspects. For ice trials, they took the OCTA to Sweden, where Land Rover has been doing cold weather testing for decades. There was a trip through the dunes in Dubai, runs across the iconic trails of Moab, Utah, and a ride down every one of Land Rover's classic testing courses at Eastnor Castle in England. With that fast powerplant and dynamic suspension, rally raid testing was in order, so the team headed to the test courses Château de Lastours in France, where many Dakar teams perform their training.
Orders will open on July 3, but select potential customers can get a sneak peek at one of seven global Defender Elements events. Two of these are planned in the United States: in New York City from May 17-19 and Los Angeles from June 21-23. At the event, potential buyers will go on a "curated and immersive journey" through the OCTA's technology.
There won't be a lot of OCTAs coming out of the factory for this first 2025 model year. There are only 1,000 allocated to North America, 1,070 to the United Kingdom, and limited undefined numbers to other markets. Pricing is, of course, not announced yet. Right now, the highest base price for a Defender 110 trim line is $118,600 for the Defender V8 Carpathian Edition. Simple logic tells us to expect the OCTA to start a good bit higher than that, possibly even nudging $200,000 with the tech and exclusivity. (We've only seen OCTAs in 110 form, and with the development that went into the dynamics of the vehicle, it's unlikely they'll surprise us with a 90 or 130 at the initial launch.)
With just over two months until the formal debut and just a few weeks until the New York Defender Elements event, if you're serious about a Defender OCTA, this is the time to start getting things in order and call your Land Rover dealer to get in line.
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