Land Rover Defender production to end January 2016 – report
Production of the simple and rugged Land Rover Defender will reportedly cease in January 2016, ending a run that began in 1948.
According to a report in Bloomberg today, Defender production will officially wrap up in January 2016. We reported in August that the company closed order books for the long-lived off-roader at the end of June this year.
Enthusiasts, presumably keen to get their hands on one of the last Defenders, have driven sales up this year, with numbers up 29 percent in the first half of 2015. Analysts from IHS believe that Jaguar Land Rover is on track to sell around 20,000 Defenders this year.
Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover's head of engineering, told the business publication, "It's time to move to a new chapter, we want to move forward with a new car".
At this stage, though, the Tata-owned luxury car maker has yet to confirm when a replacement is due, nor has it revealed what shape and form the next-generation vehicle will take on.
It's widely expected that a replacement for the Defender won't arrive on the market until 2018, with a concept car pointer possible next year.
Gerry McGovern, Land Rover's design director, confirmed to CarAdvice earlier this year that the new Defender will spawn a "family" of variants and models.
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