A Third Party Isn't Bringing Back the Old Defender

The final Land Rover Defender rolled off the assembly line earlier this year leaving many folks sad. But one wealthy fan wanted to bring it back.

Last Sunday, British newspaper The Sunday Times (Subscription Required) reported Jim Ratcliffe, a billionaire who made his money in the chemical industry met with Jaguar Land Rover executives about possibly reviving the Defender. It is unclear how Ratcliffe would bring back the model - buying the tooling, intellectual property, or both. The article goes on to say that Ratcliffe would produce the model in Great Britain.

Seems like a far-fetched idea? Guess what, it is.

"There is no way this is happening. We're not going to let anyone build our Defender," a JLR spokesman told Autocar.

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

At the moment, Land Rover plans to have the next-generation Defender launch in either 2018 or 2019.

Pic Credit: Land Rover