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Jaguar Land Rover will build its new Defender model at its Merseyside plant in a much-needed boost for the British car industry.
The car manufacturer moved production of its popular Defender range to its site in Nitra, Slovakia, in 2019. The 4x4s were previously built at JLR's Solihull factory near Birmingham.
The new electric Defender variant will be manufactured at the Halewood plant on Merseyside, which has been in operation since 1962 and employs 3,000 staff, JLR said. No production start date has been announced.
Across the three Defender models, which are JLR’s best-seller, there are currently diesel, petrol or plug-in hybrid options.
The car giant said the new Defender will be available to buy in fully electric (BEV) form or in self-charging hybrid (HEV) form, as it moves away from fully electric offerings.
Built in Britain: Jaguar Land Rover is gearing up to unleash a new Defender model and it will be built in Britain
Last year, JLR said it was scaling back its electric vehicle plans and instead ramping up production of plug-in hybrids after 'surprising' demand.
The update from JLR has emerged at a time when the Government is looking to relax its planned Zero Emission Vehicle mandate to allow hybrid vehicles to make up a greater share of sales than planned.
There is speculation that the Government mandate for pure electric cars could be reduced from 80 per cent of all sales by 2030 to 50 per cent.
Today, the manufacturer committed to keeping the internal combustion engines for its Range Rover, Defender and Discovery cars, even as it pivots Jaguar to an all-electric brand.
At an investor day, JLR said it planned to unlock 'double-digit' revenue growth by boosting its focus on North America and giving customers more choice.
The group said North America gave it the opportunity to 'cater to the extensive and increasing luxury opportunity there'. It said it would also continue to invest and expand in 'future high potential' markets, namely India and the Middle East region.
As well as a new Defender model, JLR will also be launching a new hybrid Range Rover built on its scalable platform at Halewood later this year.
PB Balaji, chief executive of JLR, said: 'As we enter a critical business delivery phase of our Reimagine strategy, launching five new products over the next two years across our incredible House of Brands, now is also the time to evolve our plan to offer global markets greater propulsion choice to unlock growth and build resilience.'
He added: 'Our aspiration, in the coming years, is to grow our US business to the size of the entire JLR business as it exists today.'
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