In America, JLR Might Develop A Defender Based On Stellantis

Jaguar Land Rover is increasingly concentrating on the US market, and a new collaboration with Stellantis may even lead to local manufacturing in the US. The now-separate Defender brand is spearheading that effort and may purchase models made specifically for North America.

Although North America is currently the company’s largest market, CEO PB Balaji stated during a recent investor presentation that the company sees “substantial growth potential” in the region. The CEO of JLR stated that he hopes to see the company’s US operations expand to the same extent as its current worldwide operations.

JLR will rely on its collaboration with Stellantis to help accomplish this. A non-binding memorandum of intent was signed by the two businesses in May to explore possible joint ventures. The goal of this collaboration is to “explore new prospects targeted at North American clients” to grow the Defender brand.

Jaguar Land Rover refrained from disclosing the specifics of its upcoming plans. A US-only version of the present Defender that has been retooled for American tastes is one possibility, but creating it and starting production would probably be prohibitively expensive. A brand-new Defender-badged variant based on an existing Stellantis platform—possibly taken from Jeep—is the more practical option. Both a pickup and an SUV are mentioned in rumours.

Putting A Lot Of Money On America

“We will expand our attention on North America, our biggest market, to properly realise the potential of our brands,” stated Balaji. “The strong preference we observe for our brands and the growing demand for luxury goods indicate substantial development possibilities. We are investigating new high-potential markets for our Defender brand in addition to expanding our current offers, which will enable us to provide customised premium goods and experiences for even more of our US customers.

It would be far easier for JLR to increase US manufacture of a model by working with Stellantis than by going it alone. Since Stellantis already has a sizeable production base in the nation, it would be easy to integrate a new Defender model or models into an existing facility, particularly if they have similar bones. Additionally, the present 15% import tariff would be avoided if Defenders were built in the US instead of being imported from Slovakia as JLR currently does.

• Also See: Freelander 8, The First Model From JLR-Chery Partnership, Debuts At Beijing Auto Show