Defender given stay of execution

Against all the odds the SUV that just won’t die has been given a last minute reprieve to help Land Rover take advantage of a late rush for its iconic Defender.

Production of the SUV will now conclude at the end of January 2016 and not ‘some time end of 2015.’

So big is demand that a second shift has now been added at the Defender’s manufacturing plant in Solihull, England.

Last year Land Rover sold 17,781 Defenders – but in the first half this year production had already reached 11,511 with volume rising 40 per cent in mainland Europe and 29 per cent in the UK.

Despite claiming production of the Defender will finish at the end of Jan there’s already fresh reports by UK newspaper, the Birmingham Post, that Land Rover might once again extend this deadline to well beyond February.

It’s been reported that there will be a significant gap of well over two years before the new Defender replacement arrives in 2018.

The production of the next-generation rugged SUV might also relocate from the UK to an as yet unnamed location in Austria or Eastern Europe.