The all-new Land Rover Defender might just be the most thoroughly tested vehicle in existence.
To date, it has been stress-tested in Africa, driven hard around the Green Hell and cold-weather tested in the coldest regions on earth.
Now Land Rover has revealed that the Defender has been put through its paces under the watchful eye of all-terrain experts from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in the latest stage of its global testing programme.
The prototype vehicle visited the IFRC global fleet base in Dubai, ahead of its public debut later this year.
Land Rover engineers demonstrated the vehicle’s breadth of capability to their IFRC counterparts both on and off road, before the IFRC fleet experts took to the wheel to test the vehicle for themselves on the region’s desert sand dunes. The team also took to the twisty tarmac of Jebel Jais highway, experiencing the assured handling and comfort of the new 4×4 as they wound their way up the tallest mountain in the United Arab Emirates.
The test in Dubai coincides with the renewal of Land Rover’s global partnership with the IFRC – a relationship that dates back 65 years, to 1954, when the first specially adapted Land Rover entered service in the region as a mobile dispensary.
This year marks the humanitarian organisation’s centenary as it celebrates ‘100 Years of Hope’. Over the next three years, Land Rover will support disaster preparedness and response initiatives in locations including India, Mexico and Australia.
