Aug 10, 2018
Ineos chooses Germany to develop Land Rover Defender successor
Jim Ratcliffe, the founder of Ineos and a prominent Brexit supporter, has selected German companies to develop his successor to the Land Rover Defender. Ineos wants to branch out beyond its core business in chemicals and industrials into automotive manufacturing, with plans to make a 4x4 vehicle styled as a natural replacement for the Land Rover Defender, the iconic off-roader that was retired by Jaguar Land Rover in 2014. A decision on the ultimate manufacturing location, a toss-up between two UK sites and a number in continental Europe, is expected within months, one of a series of choices for Ineos about whether to invest in the UK. Ineos group director Tom Crotty said that Germany was chosen as the location for engineering work on the vehicle because of the country's "Reliability" when it came to automotive manufacturing, an attribute the Defender was notorious for lacking. At the same time, Ineos is moving towards choosing the location for a £100m-plus investment into a chemicals manufacturing facility, with Hull and Antwerp in Belgium both in the running. A spokesman for Ineos declined to comment on the specifics of its projects, but said the company, which is headquartered in the UK, had invested £2bn in Britain in the past 10 years across a number of sites including its Grangemouth refinery in Scotland.
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