A Cheaper US Defender Could Ride On Jeep Bones

Jaguar Land Rover wants to build cars in America. The automaker knows that U.S. production can save it a boatload on tariffs. Making this move isn’t something it’s doing alone, though. Instead, it’s partnering up with Stellantis, and the result is going to be unique. The pair looks ready to build Defender models specifically focused on the U.S. market.

JLR CFO Richard Molyneux confirmed the broad plan during the company’s August 13 earnings call, Automotive News reports. The two automakers signed an exploratory agreement back in May, and a memorandum of understanding is expected before year’s end, which would clear the way for production at Stellantis plants in the U.S. Just don’t expect the lineup to remain as it is today, though.

Read: Land Rover’s Defender Facelift Costs The Octa Nearly 100 HP

Molyneux’s point is that JLR doesn’t move enough metal to justify building its current lineup in America. “At our scale, it doesn’t make sense for us to localize production of existing vehicles into North America,” Molyneux said. “We sell circa 30,000 Defenders in the U.S. each year. We can never localize efficiently at 30,000 units, or even at 50,000 units.”

To that end, he said the brand will launch new models in segments it doesn’t currently occupy, developed under the Defender name in partnership with Stellantis. JLR won’t say which segments, though the obvious candidate is a more traditional body-on-frame off-roader engineered with Stellantis support. That makes sense on multiple levels.

A new Defender-branded model sharing bones with the Jeep Wrangler would give the brand a credible entry below the current Defender, which sticks around, and a real shot at the Wrangler, Ford Bronco, and possibly even the electric trucks and SUVs Scout has coming. It would fix a rather expensive problem, too. Every vehicle JLR sells in America arrives from somewhere else, the Slovakia-built Defender included.

The automaker faces 10 percent duties on U.K.-built vehicles and 15 percent on those shipped from the EU. Manufacturing here would avoid that hit while reducing JLR’s exposure to fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and British pound. That matters because North America is already JLR’s largest market. It accounted for nearly 100,000 sales in the financial year ending March 31, or 28 percent of the company’s global volume.

Its share rose to 34 percent in the quarter ending June 30, while China continued moving in the opposite direction. JLR has ambitious plans for America, where it says its vehicles command its highest profits. The company wants its U.S. business to grow to the size of JLR’s entire operation today – and a locally built Defender would be one very direct way to start.