BMW V8-powered Land Rover Defender SVR on the cards for 2022

Seemingly not content with the current range-topping V8 model, a report from the United States has alleged that the Land Rover Defender could spawn an even more powerful SVR model next year.

Currently the top-selling model within the Land Rover line-up, MotorTrend claims the second model poised to wear the Special Vehicle Operations division’s SVR nomenclature after the Range Rover Sport SVR, will follow the ‘standard’ V8 in being offered in either 90 or 110 bodystyles, but eschew the supercharged bent-eight for a turbocharged unit.

With Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) having announced as far back as 2019 a technical partnership with BMW, the claim from the US publication is that the SVR will become the first model to make use of Munich’s 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 in place of the venerable 5.0-litre Ford based engine that has been in production in numerous displacements ranging from the original 4.0-litre to the 4.2-litres with and without forced assistance since 1996.

ALSO READ: Rumble silently returns: Land Rover Defender V8 priced

Poised to become a mainstay JLR engine by 2025 in readiness for the new Euro 7 emissions regulations, the V8, which will power the next generation Range Rover and Range Rover Sport currently undergoing testing, will produce a reported 441 kW in the SVR, 55 kW more than the supercharged V8, with drive going to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

The same output as the BMW M5 and M8, the SVR is expected to dispatch the 0-100 km/h mark in under five seconds and potentially reach a top speed of 250 km/h, although this remains purely speculative at present.

As indicated, the Defender SVR is only set to become a reality sometime next but expect details to emerge over the coming months in the form of pre-production spy shots as well as specification details in the form of leaks.