Next Defender expected in 2014 but Land Rover suffering from lack of focus?

Land Rover seems to be having some trouble figuring out how to go about putting its plan for the successor to the Defender throne into motion. According to Autocar, the company knows what attributes the vehicle should have, but doesn't know how to go about engineering the platform using existing components from the company's parts bin. Word from the web had previously said that Land Rover had planned to use the company's T5 steel platform for Project Icon (the internal name for the next Defender), though according to the report, the company now thinks that the chassis would be too heavy to be a viable option.

So what will the next-generation Defender look like? If anyone at Land Rover knows for sure, they certainly aren't telling the scribes at Autocar. According to the article, all we know for sure is that the vehicle will still wear the Defender name. Otherwise, there's just a few shady hints that the company's fancy Electric Rear Drive Axle Drive technology may show up both on civilian and military models.

Speaking of the Defender's military service, the Autocar report says that Land Rover is interested in winding down that area of its business, reducing the number of Defender body variations at the same time. With Tata having given the okay (and the funds) to proceed with the 2014 project, here's hoping Land Rover works its way through this mess in a hurry.

[Source: Autocar]