Jaguar Land Rover has denied reports it is entertaining the idea of allowing a British billionaire to resurrect the iconic Defender.
Earlier this week, reports out of the United Kingdom suggested that 63-year-old chemical tycoon Jim Ratcliffe was in talks with Jaguar Land Rover with the aim of restarting production of the Defender, just six months after the final example rolled out of the Solihull factory.
But Jaguar Land Rover has now poured cold water on that theory.
“There is no way this is happening. We’re not going to let anyone build our Defender,” a spokesperson said, according to Autocar.
The Tata-owned British automaker also released an official statement, reading: “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.”
Ratcliffe is the founder of chemical company Ineos. An Ineos spokesperson, who said he was replying on behalf of Ratcliffe, told Autocar that the firm was “not commenting on the Land Rover Defender story”.