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A Land Rover Defender pick-up truck with a 419bhp V8! What’s not to love?

Modification specialists Urban Automotive and Heritage Customs have created two visions of a new-age Defender pick-up

The new Land Rover Defender is available in many forms, from a commercial van to the ferocious 626bhp OCTA. However, there’s never been a pick-up version, until now. 

The first-ever new-age Defender pick-up is not an official JLR creation. It comes from the minds at Heritage Customs, who used the extra-large Defender 130 with a 419bhp 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine as the base.

A chunk of the standard car’s roof has been removed to create the truck bed, and a roll hoop has been added, presumably for both added protection and style. There’s a proper bed liner too, and a roof rack for carrying even more stuff, including the spare wheel that would usually be found on the Defender’s tailgate. 

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Heritage refers to its Defender pick-up as a “semi-coachbuilt project”. We assume that’s because the truck looks mostly the same as the 4x4 it's based on. However, buyers can choose a bespoke paint colour and wheel designs, custom upholstery, and a variety of accessories designed by the company.

But what’s better than one Defender pick-up? Two of them! As the name suggests, the Heritage Edition model you see here was designed by Heritage Customs, and offers a “refined, elegant, and authentically classic” look.

Meanwhile, the Urban Edition was created by Urban Automotive, which gives the pick-up truck a more modern, more authoritative look courtesy of a murdered-out (all black) colour scheme, extra cladding around the wheelarches, and four lightbars at the top of the windscreen. 

Heritage Customs revealed its Defender pick-up at its base in The Netherlands, and you can now buy a build slot for one. Customers can expect to pay around £60,000 to convert a Defender into a truck like you see here, and the process will take two to three months. 

A production version of the Urban Edition of the Defender pick-up will be revealed at the next Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2026.

Did you know you can sell your car through Auto Express? We’ll help you get a great price and find a great deal on a new car, too.

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News reporter

As our news reporter, Ellis is responsible for covering everything new and exciting in the motoring world, from quirky quadricycles to luxury MPVs. He was previously the content editor for DrivingElectric and won the Newspress Automotive Journalist Rising Star award in 2022.

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