If you’ve been biding your time to order a new-generation Land Rover Defender, you’ll be happy to hear that the engine options for the upcoming model year have expanded to include a powerful V8. The new supercharged 5L option applies to 2022 Defenders, and it joins the other two engine designs as the more muscular sibling in the family.

Land Rover’s website pushes the muscle of the V8 model, of course—not only the top speed and 0-60 time, which come in at 149 MPH and 4.9 seconds, but also the general build. A cursory look at the rig and its associated marketing patter suggests JLR might as well have called the 2022 V8 Defender the ‘American Edition’; tough as a ram, as it were, and ready-marketed for the tireless over-compensator.

But of course the really germane issue is towing capacity, and the strategy behind the appearance of a V8 may be tapping into the unparalleled sales of travel trailers in the virus-conscious world of 2020; in their new context, trailers are escape pods on wheels, contingency plans that can do double-duty as vacation options. The new V8 Defender can claim 518 horses and 461 pound-feet of torque, more than enough to make towing even a big, big trailer a sweatless exercise. Is it a necessity over and above the capable 2L engine or the nearly 400-HP inline six? Maybe not, but for many buyers it’ll be a ‘better a large surplus than a small deficit’ decision.

New tech is on the menu for the 2022 Defender generally, it goes without saying, including an optional 11.4-inch touchscreen. The performance compensations for the additional power of the V8 include torque vectoring and drive mode optimization.

No word as of yet on deliveries or sticker price. More news will be on the way once the snow melts.