Land Rover challenges Defender resurrection by UK entrepreneur

A British entrepreneur’s plan to revive the discontinued Defender may have been thwarted by Land Rover after the carmaker reasserted its rights to the iconic off-roader.

Earlier this month Jim Ratcliffe (pictured), the chairman of chemicals giant Ineos, revealed he had launched a feasibility study to “resurrect the Land Rover Defender and build the world’s best and most rugged off roader.”

Land Rover ended production of the Defender in January 2016 after a 68 year run.

“We have commissioned a full feasibility study into the possibility of resurrecting the iconic Land Rover Defender,” said Ratcliffe.

“Whilst it is early days, our plan has already attracted a huge amount of support from third parties across the globe.”

Ratcliffe said the model would be built in the UK near a northern port facility.

However, Land Rover moved quickly to reassert its ownership of the Defender name and its intention to launch a new generation.

“The Defender will always be Land Rover’s icon. Jaguar Land Rover has stated its intention to continue the Defender lineage with an all-new model. We can confirm there are no plans to restart production of the previous generation Defender and we have no business arrangement with Ineos.

“The Defender remains a key part of our future product strategy, and the development of the next generation model remains on track as does our ongoing Land Rover Reborn programme, through Land Rover Classic.”

However, Ratcliffe’s plans could still see the building of a utility off-roader designed in the spirit of the Defender.

“I am a great admirer of the Land Rover Defender and I think it can be upgraded to be the world’s best and most rugged off roader”.

“I am a passionate advocate of UK manufacturing and the Land Rover Defender has been a part of the British motoring scene for over sixty years. We want to breathe new life into it and make it even better than before”.

Ineos said the new vehicle would be a limited edition and benefit from significant upgrades to enable it to pass the latest global safety and emission standards.

“Ineos has committed to treating the Defender’s much loved exterior shape like a listed building, making as few modifications as possible.  However, the company would substantially upgrade much of the vehicle engineering with the goal of matching the Toyota Land Cruiser for reliability but keeping the Defender’s superior off road qualities,” it said.