New ‘Land Rover Defender’ from Ineos could be built at Ford Plant in Wales

The ‘New’ Land Rover Defender planned by Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos could be built at Ford’s engine Plant in Bridgend.

The plans by Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos looks to be on track to deliver their vision of a ‘New’ Land Rover Defender, despite JLR putting a spoke in the works.

Ineos has already revealed their new 4×4 – expected to be very close in looks to the recently retired Defender – will be engineered by MBtech, a former Mercedes-Benz subsidiary which still does plenty of engineering for Mercedes – as well as BMW and Porsche.

The plan is to make the new 4×4 a real homage to Land Rover’s Defender, but with the latest engineering and build quality making it a far superior product in every way.

What hasn’t been fixed yet is just where the new Ineos Defender will be built, but according to the Financial Times there’s more than a fighting chance it will be at Ford’s engine plant in Bridgend.

The Bridgend Plant is currently under threat as it’s set to lose business from JLR in 2020 as JLR move to delivering their own engines, rather than relying on the Ford engines used for so long, threatening a big chunk of the jobs in Bridgend.

It’s an interesting option, as well as a delightful irony if Bridgend is saved from the loss of the JLR business by delivering production of Ineos’s replacement for a JLR product.