Stunning Defender P400e gives you the drive you want at the BIK tax level you need

Andrew Walker

For plenty of reasons, not everyone can live with an EV, and if you’re a company car driver, a plug-in hybrid offers a good solution; petrol on fast roads, electric on slow ones.

For many, the status of owning a large off-road SUV, or the necessity of having one, often outweighs the cost to fill one up and its environmental impact, so a Land Rover Defender PHEV is really good news.

What is it?

The Defender P400e is powered by a plug-in hybrid powertrain, a combination of a petrol engine with an electric motor and a battery.

Don’t panic though, because it’s as capable off-road as all other Land Rovers. The Defender we tested featured Terrain Response 2, which enables you to select drive modes for Ruts, Grass, Gravel, Snow, Mud, Sand and Rocks and you even get Wading Mode up to 900mm.

Model choice and spec

We were driving the Land Rover Defender 110 P400e X-Dynamic S. Other model choices are SE, HSE, X-Dynamic, X-Dynamic SE, X-Dynamic HSE, XS Edition and the range-topping X .

Standard spec on all models includes a body-coloured roof, LED headlights, 18″ Style Gloss White steel wheels, all-season tyres, full-size spare wheel, fabric eight-way heated semi-powered front seats, All Wheel Drive, twin-speed transfer box, Terrain Response, 10″ touchscreen with Pivi Pro, Smartphone Pack, 180W Sound System with six speakers, 3D Surround Camera, 360° parking aid, Wade Sensing, cruise control with speed limiter, Lane Keep Assist, Emergency Braking and Traffic Sign Recognition.

Engine choice

There’s just one, but it’s very good. So factor in Land Rover’s four-cylinder, 2.0 litre Ingenium petrol engine with an 105kW electric motor and a 19.2kWh battery, producing 404 hp and 640 Nm of torque. This is good for a 0-60mph time of just 5.4 seconds and a top speed of 119 mph.

Exterior

For persons of a certain age, the Defender definitely has a ‘Tonka Toy’ look about it. Our test car featured a black contrast roof and bonnet, sliding panoramic roof, orange brake callipers, black exposed rear recovery eyes, 20″ five split-spoke alloys, darkened tail lights, a cross car beam in dark grey with a full size spare wheel hanging off the rear door. It looks fantastic!

Cabin

The quality of the cabin is excellent. So you get the latest version of Land Rovers Pivi Pro infotainment system, incredible build quality and all the latest safety features you’d expect from a luxury SUV. It’s also hewn from rock and feels bullet-proof while also featuring some lovely finishes, even lower down and on the doors, where many other premium brands cut corners.

The automatic gear selector sticks out of the dashboard and is easy to reach as are all of the switch gear and controls.

Off road capability

The Defender features All Wheel Drive, a twin-speed transfer box, coil suspension and Terrain Response. It will also wade up to 900mm. The inclusion of electronic air suspension means that you can raise the height of the suspension to give 291mm of ground clearance.

Practicality

All versions of Defender offer a maximum towing capacity of 3,500kg. However, thanks to the inclusion of the battery, the PHEV will only tow 3,000kg. There’s also 499 litres of boot space, or 1,946 litres with the seats down, which is 119 litres down on the petrol or diesel Defender, and you can’t have the seven-seat option with the P400e model either.

Cabin storage is generous, so you get a large glove box, under armrest storage, large door pockets, central twin cup holders, twin USBs and a 12v socket. Rear passenger space is good, with plenty of head and legroom. Rear door pockets are small with room for just a bottle in each. The front seat backs feature tidy pull-down storage. As a bonus, rear passengers also benefit from their own climate controls and twin USBs.

Company car driver

The reason most drivers will choose any new PHEV over a petrol or diesel equivalent will be down to the company car tax benefits. Even though the PHEV is more expensive than the petrol and diesel only models, with its low emissions of 59g/km, the P400e attracts a rate of 16% benefit-in-kind, compared to 37% for the petrol and diesel models. The saving for a 40% tax payer is close to £3,500 a year on the cheapest plug-in Defender versus the equivalent Defender diesel. And, as fuel prices show no sign of lowering, plugging in at home overnight on a lower rate of 7.5p-9.5p a kWh, will allow you to charge your P400e up for under £2.50 each time for 30 miles of urban driving. Driving the ICE equivalent would set you back more like a £6 for the same mileage.

On the road

The Defender drives impeccably. This is unquestionably aided by its electronic air suspension, which makes this large, heavy vehicle, glide over the road ahead. It’s quick when required, quiet and easy to handle in town and a brilliant motorway cruiser. You can select the required drive mode either by rotating the left-hand cabin temperature dial or by pressing the touchscreen.

Select the EV button located on the dash to change from Hybrid to Electric, or choose Save, which will keep your electric charge until you need it or will top it up as you drive along. This is great for local driving. For example, we took delivery of the Defender on a Tuesday and didn’t come out of Electric mode until Friday night, when we drove to North Wales. You can theoretically drive up to 31 miles on electric power and to be fair to Land Rover, we managed 25 miles of pure electric driving, which was most impressive.

If you want the car to do the thinking for you, then select Smart mode and it will choose the best combination of plug-in and petrol power. When it changes between these it does so seamlessly. Furthermore, the on-board regeneration is very subtle so you’ll not even know when it’s working, but it is –and it works. On a 120-mile motorway jaunt our electric range recharged from zero to 75% in just 2 hours. Most excellent!

The overall feel of the plug-in Defender is that it is actually a great fun, even sporty, car to drive, not something you can say about many large 4X4 SUVs.

Pros

The Land Rover image and looks make it stand out in any crowd. Brilliant to drive, practical and built like granite. Off road it’s unbeatable. Company car drivers can smile too, with big savings over the Defender diesel or petrol versions and a pure electric range of 31 miles. The on-board battery regeneration was also the best of any car we’ve driven.

Cons

Expensive, load space and towing capacity are compromised compared to other Defenders. The claimed fuel economy of 80mpg is most likely to be half that.

Verdict

While the P400e isn’t cheap and doesn’t match the diesel Defender’s load space or towing ability, its company car tax saving credentials are the real winner here. Drive it carefully and 40mpg is infinitely achievable and lower BIK means money in your pocket. As a bonus, it’s beautifully built, very well equipped, offers impeccable road manners and will do the off-road stuff, too.

CC&V VERDICT

All the Land Rover you need with the added bonus of beating the tax man if it’s a company car. Beautifully built... just a shame we’ve lost a little of the loadspace