Seems that Land Rover’s long and very orchestrated goodbye to the Defender is starting to seep into the national consciousness of the buying consumers as reports suggest it could extend production by a few months at least.
The Defender, which is built in Solihul, could see its production run extend well into January 2016, production was scheduled to cease in December.
Land Rover have added a second shift to the current Defender’s production assembly line as demand has grown.
Defender sales totaled 17,781 units worldwide during 2014 with demand rising 40 percent in Europe and 25 percent in the UK.
The second generation Defender, when it arrives in 2018, could well be made outside of the UK as Jaguar Land Rover seeks to increase annual sales to around 800k by 2020.
Jaguar Land Rover will have to reduce production costs in order to meet this target and are seeking consultation in countries where labor costs are cheaper than in the UK.
Poland and Slovakia remain well within JLR’s sights for a new European production hub. Or JLR may well end up using contract manufactures Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria.
What ever the fate of the next generation Defender the current generation is sure to be the last of the British made Defenders.