by Chris Chilton
- Heritage Customs built a pickup version of the modern Defender 130.
- The coachbuilt truck comes in classic Heritage or modern Urban styles.
- Orders open now with 2026 build slots starting from €65,000 plus car.
Land Rover gave the green light to an EV version of its modern Defender, but decided not to extend the same courtesy to a pickup variant, reasoning it wasn’t a priority. But Netherlands-based Heritage Customs was happy to fill that niche and has just unveiled the first modern Defender truck.
We’ve actually covered Heritage’s project before, back in June 2024, but all we had to go on then was a bunch of renderings.
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Now the team has built the real thing out of a long-wheelbase Defender 130, finally giving Land Rover fans an alternative to the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster, which of course takes inspiration from the classic Defender 110 pickup.
A Pickup That Isn’t
Based on what we can see in the pictures, Heritage has done a neat job, coming up with something that most people would believe is a factory JLR build. But it takes all of one second to see the huge problem, and it’s the less than huge bed. In fact, it’s tiny.
Heritage says the bed measures just 1,000 mm (39 inches) long and 1,400 mm (55 inches) wide, so anyone who buys one is going to be the kind of person who values style over practicality.
The crappy bed size is hardly a surprise when you look at how much further forward the rear wheels are than on a conventional crew-cab pickup.
Heritage bases its design on the longer, V8-powered Defender 130, but unlike in the old days when that number signified the wheelbase in inches, today it’s just a model name that denotes extra body length.
The Defender 110 and 130 both ride on the same 119-inch (3,020 mm) wheelbase but the 130 has a longer rear overhang to create more seating and luggage space.
Ineos, on the other hand, stretched the 115-inch (2,921 mm) wheelbase of the Grenadier out to 127 inches (3,225 mm) to create the Quartermaster pickup. Land Rover must have known it would have to do the same, which could be one of the reasons it gave a pickup variant a hard pass.
What It’ll Cost You
Heritage is currently taking deposits for February 2026 build slots, suggesting a €65,000 ($75k/£57k) cost plus the price of a donor vehicle, and a conversion time of two to three months.
So it’s not cheap or practical, but it will turn heads, and since that’s the likely goal you might want to wait for Heritage’s sister brand Urban Automotive to get its hands on one.
The UK outfit promises a more “contemporary” take and released a few renderings to give us an idea of what to expect when it unveils its version at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed next July.
