Where Are Land Rovers Made?

Ask anyone where Land Rovers are made, and they will tell you in England, or more precisely in Solihull in England.

However, although the U.K. produces the largest number of Land Rover Vehicles, it is not the only country they are produced in.

The truth is that Land Rovers were made in over 50 countries.

Where Are Modern Land Rovers Made

While many of the older Land Rovers assembly productions were spread worldwide, today’s productions are limited to a small number of places.

The majority of new Land Rovers today are manufactured in the UK. However, there are a few production plants in other countries to fulfill the needs of other areas.

Solihull, U.K. 

The Solihull plant is the most recognized plant for the Land Rover. It was the first assembly plant and later went on to manufacture a lot of Land Rover parts.

Today the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and the Range Rover Velar are manufactured in the Solihull plant.

Halewood, UK

Jaguar Land Rover acquired the Halewood plant in 2001, but it wasn’t until 2007 that it started producing Land Rovers. 

Today it makes the Land Rover Discovery Sport and the Range Rover Evoque.

Nitra, Slovakia

In 2018 production of Land Rovers began at the 300,000 m2 plant in Slovakia.

The plant makes the Land Rover Defender and Land Rover Discovery and is responsible for the production of up to 150,000 vehicles each year.

Itatiatia, Brazil

Jaguar Land Rover started producing vehicles in Brazil in 2016. The factory here makes the Land Rover Discovery Sport and the Range Rover Evoque.

Changsu, China

The plant in China first began operations in October 2114. Today it makes the Land Rover Discovery Sport and the Range Rover Evoque.

Pune, India

The Land Rover assembly plant in India is perhaps one of the longest operating Land Rover plants outside of the U.K.

The Plant began as a CKD assembly plant and today makes the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque.

Old Land Rover Models

Older Land Rover models were manufactured and assembled in more many more places than modern models.

Most of the Land Rovers from other countries were only assembled after arriving in CKD form. However, some countries had manufacturing processes and many countries added their own styling to the CKD kits.

U.K

Solihull

Solihull in the U.K. is the most recognized Land Rover factory. This is because it was the final assembly line for the majority of Land Rover models.

In the later years, when Land Rover started to reign in some of it’s expansion, the Solihull factory also picked up the slack and started to add to the little manufacturing that it did.

Midlands Factories

  • Type
  • Acocks Green
  • Clay Lane
  • Ryland Road
  • Tyburn Road
  • Garrison Street

Land Rover in Other Countries

The demand for Land Rover to expand their offering was partly because the government requested that manufacturers needed to export the majority of their products to kickstart the economy.

This prompted Land Rover to start Producing Complete Knockdown Vehicles (CKD).

These vehicles were manufactured in parts by the many Land Rover factories in the midlands and shipped as a ready to build vehicle.

Australia

Australia, a commonwealth country, was one of the first to start receiving CKD vehicles.

There were a total of five distributors in Australia 

  1. Regent Motors
  2. Champions LTD
  3. Falls Motors
  4. Annand &Thompson
  5. Grenville Motors

However, only four of these assembled the vehicles, Falls did not have any part in building Land Rovers as they did not have the facilities to do so.

The other four assembled the Land Rovers and added some of their own styling.

Land Rover became concerned that the quality of the vehicles on the Australian market was not meeting their expectations, so they entered into an agreement with a metal corporation in New South Wales to start building Land Rovers, which started in 1956.

Angola

Angola started assembling CKD vehicles in Mulemba in August of 1964. However, fully assembled vehicles have already been arriving in the country four years prior to that and still arrived with the CKD vehicles only being a supplement to production.

The assembly plant produced about six vehicles a day.

The plant ceased operations in 1982 but the fully built vehicles kept coming from Solihull, as well as Santana models from Spain.

Belgium

Belgium was one of the countries to take in a larger number of incomplete Land Rovers.

In 1951 Minerva agreed with Land Rover to produce vehicles for the military. These vehicles would be complete chassis without any bodywork sent from Solihull and the vehicle would be completed in Belgium.

There was a total of 9905 vehicles assembled in Belgium between 1952 and 1957.

However, there were still a few vehicles assembled after 1957, but it is unsure how many or when the production stopped.

Brazil

Brazil started receiving CKD kits in 1954 with assembly beginning in 1955. However, assembly in Brazil did not last long and Solihull ceased shipment in 1958.

In 1998 CKD vehicles started arriving in Brazil again and ran until 2005, during this time there was up to 1500 vehicles produced each day.

Cuba

Land Rovers began arriving in Cuba in 1957 for assembly under Fabrica Nacional de Impemnetos Agricoles management.

The production ran up until 1959, after which the political revolution halted operations.

Cameroon

Not much is known about the Land Rover Operation in Cameroon except that they did receive some CKD vehicles for assembly in 1961. These vehicles were most likely series IIA. However, any other details are lacking.

Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

In 1959 a small amount of CKD kits started arriving in what was then known as Ceylon. The operation did not last long, and in 2013 another operation had started up under the management of Satoshi Motors.

Chile

Chile started receiving CKD kits in the late 1960s. It appears these vehicles were mainly imported for military use.

The manufacturing process ran until 1965 with a total of around 400 vehicles being assembled there.

Costa Rica

The first Land Rover CKD kits left Solihull for Costa Rica in 1962. The assembly production there offered many style upgrades that were not offered in Solihull.

Production ran until the 1970s, after which Costa Rica started receiving Santas and later in 1992 fully built Defenders.

Denmark

Almost nothing is known about the Land Rovers that were assembled in Denmark. The only record that remains is that 1951 model 80-inch Land Rovers with numbers in the 1663 series were shipped to a motor company in Denmark ith the late 1950s

Where Are Land Rovers Made

Ecuador

Ecuador company B Aviles Alfaro & Cia assembled a small number of Series II 88 and Series IIA 88s as well as some 109s. These were mainly for military use. Assembly continued with Series III until 1977.

Egypt

Egypt normally received Land Rovers as complete vehicles, However, a small number of CKD vehicles were manufactured there for the military from 1960-1961

Ethiopia

Little is known about the Land Rover productions in Ethiopia. What we do know is that Ethiopia mostly received complete vehicles from Addis Abba.

However, the is evidence to suggest that there was a small number of series II models assembled, which may have been for military use. The military has used Land Rovers there since 1968.

Ireland

Lincoln and Nolan motor company started assembling CKD vehicles in 1950 in Dublin, Ireland.

The operation was small and not all models at the current time were available. 

The operation ran until 1964.

Germany 

A small number of incomplete Land Rovers was sent to West Germany in 1952/53 who were unable to build their own military vehicles due to the terms of surrender.

The vehicles were sent as chassis and completed in Germany under Vidal und Sohn of Hamburg.

There were small batches of vehicles sent until 1956, after which there was a small number of fully built vehicles sent.

Ghana

Africa Motors Ltd built an assembly operation for Land Rovers in 1960. Here it assembled bot petrol and diesel models in RHD.

The operation ran until 1977.

Greece

There was a small assembly plant set up in Greece in 1969 by John Phositropoulo company.

The operation ran into the 1970s.

India

India began receiving CKD Land Rovers as early as 1949. There was a brief pause leading to no 1951 models, but operations resumed again in the summer of 1952.

There was then another brief pause of sending CKD kits until 1954 when a new assembly production began.

This new production lasted until 1957, after which no more Land Rovers were assembled in India.

Indonesia

In 1956 the Java Motor Import Corporation received the first CKD Land Rover in Djakarta.

The assembly was quite large and ran until 1977 producing Series II and Series III vehicles along the way.

However, not much is known since 1977.

Iran

Assembly of CKD Land Rovers began in Iran in late 1959. The operation ran into the 1970s. During the 1970s British Leyland changed Irans territory to receive Santanas instead so the shipment of CKD kits started coming from Spain instead.

Jordan

Many CKD kits arrived in Jorden to be assembled for the military. Unlike the majority of other assembly productions, Iran didn’t start assembly until quite late.

They received the first CKD vehicles in 2001. However, assembly didn’t actually begin on the vehicles until 2005.

There was a total of 5000 110 Defenders assembled.

Kenya

The assembly of CKD Land Rovers is one of the longest production periods, even though it went through many different companies in the process.

The first operation began in 1961 and ran up until 2012. The majority of the time the assembly was under KVM.

Lebanon

A small military contract in 1960 saw some Land Rovers assembled in Lebanon. 

The operation ended in 1961

Malaysia

Between 2000 and 2008 when Ford owned Land Rover there was up to 300 Defenders assembled each year at the Ford plant in Shan Alam.

The operation moved factory in 2013, but closed shortly afterwards.

New Zealand

New Zealand followed suit of Australia not long after a single plant was established to supply all of Australia.

A number of assembly lines were set up in New Zealand, which operated from 1960-1988.

South Africa

CKD assembly in South Africa began around 1952, with a small suspension of operations in 1960.

In 1961 operations moved to a new assembly plant that could produce up to 25 Land Rovers per day.

This plant made some Land Rovers that were unique and only available in South Africa.

One of which was a six-cylinder 109 for military use.

Land Rovers were made in South Africa up until 2005 when it was closed during Fords ownership.

Spain

The assembly of Land Rovers started in Spain quite early. By 1958 Series II started being assembled.

However, the governments required that the majority of the products should be manufactured locally.

This meant the first 1500 vehicles should be 75% locally manufactured, 85% for the next 1000, and 95% for everything after.

This led to the Land Rover Santana that was then shipped as CKD to certain geographical areas.

Sweden

Sweden didn’t receive CKD kits like many other countries, instead they received complete chassis, which they later built out to spec to suit local weather conditions.

The operation ran from 1949 to 1958, but only between 350-450 vehicles were built there.

Final Thoughts

While Land Rover started out with the main assembly line in Solihull U.K., many of their vehicles were also assembled and manufactured around the world.

Today they have six main production plants, yet Solihul still produces the most of the vehicles with plans to increase its output in the future.

Brent
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