The four-wheel drive vehicle has been produced since 1948 in Solihull by various owners including British Leyland, BMW, Ford and, Tata through Jaguar Land Rover. The steel and aluminium vehicle has been used by everyone from farmers and the army to James Bond, Winston Churchill and the Queen.
Among the hundreds of employees witnessing the event were those who had worked on the Defender for decades. Some had seen generations working on the same line.
JLR said while some employees had chosen to retire with the Defender, the rest would be redeployed without redundancies. Some will work on a heritage vehicle restoration line, repurposing old Defenders, to be launched later this year.
Originally conceived as a no-frills, off-road vehicle, the Land Rover was marketed as the ‘go anywhere’ option ‘for the farmer, the countryman and general industrial use’.
The original design was drawn in the sand on Red Wharf Bay in Wales by Rover’s chief engineer Maurice Wilks, who was looking to better the design of the American Willys Jeep. The vehicle virtually kept Rover afloat after the Second World War.
JLR CEO, Ralf Speth explained: “Never before can we have said such firm foundations were made in sand. That sketch saved the company, made the company strong and created a totally new class of vehicle that has saved lives, as well as transform our industry.”
The Defender, which only got its name in 1990 after 40 years of being known by numbers denoting the series number or chassis length was driven by British troops in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as by farmers, and was the precursor to the luxurious Range Rovers. Its rugged design has ensured that an estimated two-thirds of Defenders and their predecessors are still on the road.
However, the Defender’s popularity as an on-road vehicle has lessened as it has been overtaken by legislation and technology, rendering some features illegal or, at best, out of date. Its side-facing back seats were banned by the EU after 2007 and tighter emissions regulations and safety standards have made it virtually obsolete.
The 2,000,000th Defender – a one-off ‘Defender 2,000,000’ – was auctioned in December 2015 for £400,000 with proceeds going to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Born Free Foundation.
As well as the Defender Heritage Restoration programme, JLR has announced it will produce a replacement model for the Defender, slated for release in 2018. However, it is unclear what the design will look like.
