Defender 110 Plug-in Hybrid Trophy Edition Review

Camels are amazing creatures. Many know of their ability to retain water and thus travel long distances through the desert. Not so well known, perhaps, is the fact that the animal's ability to carry heavy loads was also crucial to the trade that sustained many historic West African empires.

This car, of course, isn't named after the animal. But this special edition Defender is inspired by the cars that clinched success in the Camel Trophy off-road vehicle competition.

We have already seen this Defender prove its worth driving off-road in Taiwan. But could this competition-inspired car be the thing for your own urban adventures here in Singapore?

This Trophy Edition Defender comes with a host of special Trophy badging and gets a roof rack as standard

Exciting exterior

If standing out amongst a background of teal glass and grey concrete is your goal, this Defender Trophy Edition should appeal, especially if you opt for yours in the Sandglow Yellow shown in the photos.

Adding to this finish are added features that include a set of mud flaps, Trophy Edition decals that appear on the bonnet and the C-pillar of the car, the black bonnet, and a roof rack at the top. These touches all add to the adventure-ready boxy silhouette of the Defender and give the car an eye-catching appeal without running the risk of looking gaudy.

But if all these still look a little too much for you, there's also the option of your Trophy Edition car finished in a more discreet Keswick Green.

The special edition car also gets a back of its cross bar beam in a hue that matches its exterior colour, and there are also more Trophy badges on either end of the dashboard

Enticing cabin

Step within and you'll find that the changes made to this limited edition car become less obvious. Look downwards and you'll find this car comes with its own treadplates. The distinctive cross car beam that features in every cabin of this modern iteration of the Defender also gets its backing colour matched to your chosen exterior colour. And you'll also find special Trophy badging on either end of the car's dashboard.

These are light touches and quite fitting for the utilitarian brief the Defender has also been tasked to fill (even if this modern iteration comes with a rather tall price tag).

And quite frankly, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. The space in this Defender has always struck as being rather well-thought out and this car is thankfully no different. Your air-conditioning settings are easily adjusted via the two circular dials on the centre console. Press a button and one of these allows you to change the fan speed. Press another and you can use the other dial to switch between programmes for different off-road surfaces.

There's plenty of space for rear passengers, while boot space reaches a total of 853 litres here

And of course, there's enough space both in the second row and at the back (this plug-in hybrid Defender is a five-seater) to rival any ship of the desert.

If you're wondering, this special edition still gets all the added features that we saw added to the Defender in its most recent facelift. So, there's a little housing for the sensors of the car's new Driver's Attention Monitor system within the steering wheel, and the car now sports a 13.1-inch infotainment system as opposed to the 11.4-inch one that comes in Defenders from before.

For those new to the firm's Pivi Pro infotainment system, note that it has always impressed with its gorgeous colour scheme and is intuitive to use, save for the fact that the adjusting the colour of the ambient lighting seems to require a deep dive into the settings panel.

This plug-in hybrid Defender gets a 15.4kWh battery that allows it to post an electric-only range of 48km

Eager adventurer

There's another key difference between this car and the Defender that we drove just last month: This Trophy Edition car will only arrive here in Singapore equipped with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain. This drivetrain pairs a 2.0-litre engine with an electric motor animated by a 15.4kWh (useable capacity) battery to allow it to push out a maximum power output of 296bhp alongside a peak torque of 625Nm.

Our car came to us with a completely depleted high-voltage battery for this drive, but thankfully this isn't our first experience with this drivetrain. Jaguar Land Rover claims that the car will do close to 48km on all-electric power alone, a figure that we thought was fair during our drive of the earlier iteration of the Defender 110 plug-in hybrid which also used this drivetrain.

And this drive saw the car posting a fuel economy of 7.7km/L over the three days which we had the car, an impressive figure given the sheer weight of this car, and a rate that is better than its official consumption of 6.9km/L.

Don't let that honest engine size let you imagine that this Defender is lacking for power. On paved roads, its hybrid system does enough so all 2,613kg of this car still feels quick off the line. And the car's eight-speed gearbox proved rather eager to assist as well, keenly executing downshifts so you always have the necessary acceleration for quick overtaking manoeuvres.

The Defender Trophy Edition adds a host of tasty features to the already handsome exterior of the regular Defender

Extra special

So, should you secure one for yourself? If you're a fan of the Defender and on the lookout for something that’s a little special, there really is no reason not to: This Trophy Edition car is asking for just $16,000 more than the Defender 110 with the same drivetrain in its "X-Dynamic SE" trim. 

For added features such as the black rims and the added roof rack alone, this top up looks like quite the steal. And there's another perk that can't be ignored: There's only one customer example of this Trophy Edition car set to be allocated to Singapore, so you'll be traversing our streets in something that’s truly unique even amongst the host of Defenders already here in Singapore. Now that's something really amazing.

Looking for your next off-roader? Make sure to also catch these reviews:

We also took the Defender powered by the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 not too long ago...

But perhaps you'd rather take on the dirt path in this all-electric Mercedes-Benz G580?

There's also the capable and rugged Jeep Wrangler to think about!