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Jaguar Land Rover denies plans to resurrect original Defender

Jaguar Land Rover has categorically denied that it is planning to, or will allow a third party to, resume production of the Land Rover Defender, which went out of production in January.


A report in The Sunday Times claimed that Jim Ratcliffe, a British billionaire who built his fortune in the chemical industry, was hoping to revive production of the storied off-roader.

The newspaper understood that Ratcliffe recently had discussions with Jaguar Land Rover board members about the possibility restarting production in the UK. It isn't known if the businessman wanted to procure the production line or just intellectual property rights to the car.

In statement to Autocar, Jaguar Land Rover said, "We can confirm there are no plans to restart production of the previous generation Defender". The company went on to state that "Defender remains a key part of our future product strategy, and the development of the next generation model remains on track".

A spokesperson reiterated to the magazine: "There is no way this is happening. We're not going to let anyone build our Defender."

The final Defender rolled off Land Rover's production line Solihull in January this year. In production for 68 years, the original Defender finally succumbed to slowing sales, and ever more stringent emissions regulations and safety standards.

Jaguar Land Rover plans to have a second-generation Defender on sale by 2018.

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