Land Rover Defender made in Slovakia with Wolverhampton engines
Jaguar Land Rover is to build its next generation Land Rover Defender 4x4 in Slovakia using engines made in Wolverhampton.
The Defender was built at the firm's Solihull factory for 67 years until January 2016.
The firm says the new model has been designed and engineered in the UK at Gaydon and its new engines are being made at the engine manufacturing centre at the i54.
More than two million Defenders were made in the West Midlands but the new model will be put together at the company's £1 billion plant in Nitra, Slovakia, which opened in October 2018.
The new model is expected to be unveiled at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show and to go on sale early in 2020.
JLR says the new Defender is now entering its final phase of testing in Kenya.
By the time the car makes its public debut it will have passed more than 45,000 individual tests in some of the most extreme environments on earth.
Nick Rogers, executive director of product engineering at JLR, said: “In addition to the extensive simulation and rig testing, we’ve driven new Defender 1.2 million kilometres across all terrains and in extreme climates to ensure that it is the toughest and most capable Land Rover ever made."
