Energy giant Ineos has confirmed plans to build a new 4x4 off road car in a multi-million pound investment which will create new jobs.
The company has completed a six-month feasibility study, saying the new vehicle will be inspired by Land Rover's Defender model.
Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe, who drives a Defender, said: "I am a great admirer of the old Land Rover Defender and have enormous respect for its off road capability.
"Our new 4x4 has been inspired by it.
"But whilst our off-roader might share its spirit, our new car will be a major improvement on previous models."
Ineos said the car will ideally be built in the UK and could create hundreds of jobs.
The firm said it expects to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on the project, which it believes will fill a gap in the market.
The project will be run by Dirk Heilmann, formerly head of engineering and technology at Ineos, who is now chief executive at Ineos automotive.
Mr Heilmann, who has already started recruiting staff, said: "This is an amazing project for everyone involved.
"Our job is to create the world's best 4x4 and we are already moving forward with our plans."
Ineos spokesman Tom Crotty said the company had a preference to build the car in the north of England, but no final decision had yet been made.
The aim is to have cars coming off the production line by 2020, for sale across the world.
"We will be looking for global sales, so we need to make sure the car meets all international regulations," he told the Press Association.
Up to 20,000 Defenders were built a year until Jaguar Land Rover ended production just over a year ago at its Solihull plant in the West Midlands.
The Defender name was introduced in 1990 and more than two million were built.
Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to build a replacement Defender.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel