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Next-Gen Land Rover Defender Could be Built in Eastern Europe

One of the manliest SUVs out there, the long-serving Land Rover Defender, could see daylight from an Eastern European production facility, according to recent reports.
Land Rover Defender Concept 1 photo
Photo: Land Rover
After 67 years on the market, the veteran Land Rover Defender will go out of production later this year. While it's pretty clear that the British SUV is becoming extinct, chances are high that we'll see a new model being spawned by Land Rover, but first as a concept.

However, rumors about the real deal aka production version of the new Defender are already circling the internet. In other words, according to Financial Times cited by Autocar, Jaguar Land Rover will assemble the new Defender in a facility located in Eastern Europe.

Why Eastern Europe, you might ask? Well, the answer is simple: sales of the Range Rover Sport are off the charts and if things continue this way - coupled with a potential success of the new Jaguar F-Pace SUV - the maximum production capacity in the UK is bound to be attained.

Therefore, Jaguar Land Rover will require a new building plant for the car internally baptized 'Project Darwin' (codename L663). For new, few details are known about the new Defender but last year, Jaguar Land Rover marketing director Phil Popham suggested a prototype Defender could arrive in 2016.

If we base our assumptions on that, the production model will then hit the market in 2017, maybe early 2018. Customers will have to choose from plenty of egos, as the new Defender will receive a two-door short-wheelbase guise with metal top, a similar one with a soft top and another one in pickup configuration, plus a four-door LWB version and a four-door pickup variant.

At the moment, Hungary and Poland as seen as potential candidates to host a plant that will produce the new Defender, but we'll keep you posted as more info emerges.
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