New Land Rover Defender Dakar rally car in the works for 2026 event

We know the current Defender is tough, but Land Rover is setting out to prove this beyond any doubt by entering its popular SUV in the 2026 Dakar Rally. 

The Defender will be the Dakar Rally’s ‘official car partner’ next year with Land Rover partnering the event until 2028. Providing a fleet of Defenders to the Dakar in 2025 (which runs from the 3rd to 17th of January), they will transport officials and VIP media during the course of the event. Six specialised Defender ‘recce’ vehicles will be supporting Dakar Rally officials too - to help them test routes for future Dakar events.

All this should stand Land Rover in good stead for when it enters the Dakar Rally proper in 2026 - which will be the first time ever the brand has ever raced in the event. We don’t know what technical changes will be made to the Defender in order for it to compete, though Land Rover says details about the “future Defender rally raid competition programme” will be announced during Dakar 2025.

James Barclay, JLR Motorsport Managing Director, said: “Our first time ever with a factory entry into the Dakar means we are right at the beginning of our journey. We are conscious of how much we have to learn and achieve before taking the start in 2026, but we are already well under way and looking forward to the adventure. We will share more details of this exciting programme at the Dakar rally in 2025.”

The 2024 Dakar Rally event was won by Audi in its third attempt with the RS Q e-tron. The car shared virtually nothing with Audi’s all-electric e-tron road car range and we expect Land Rover’s entry in 2026 will also be fairly unrecognisable from the Defender road car.