Under the Land Rover and Range Rover brand names, Land Rover manufactures off-road SUVs. Despite the fact that the names sound extremely similar, The Land Cruiser is a completely different Toyota vehicle. Full-size SUVs like the Land Cruiser can accommodate up to eight passengers.
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What about a Range Rover?
One of the brands that make up parent business Jaguar Land Rover, which is in turn owned by Indian manufacturer Tata Motors, and which produces a line of vehicles under the name Range Rover, is the iconic British brand Land Rover. The original Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar, and Range Rover Evoque are among the models in the lineup. The latter two are frequently abbreviated as Velar and Evoque.
Who constructs Range Rovers?
Our cars are made by, or have as their brand name, Land Rover. Land Rover is the manufacturer of all Range Rover models. Within the complete 7-vehicle Land Rover brand lineup, the Range Rover Family designates a 4-vehicle lineup.
Does Toyota own Land Rover?
One part of the bigger British corporation Jaguar Land Rover, which is a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors, is the British SUV maker Land Rover. Since 1948, when it started producing off-road vehicles that were inspired by the little transports used during World War II, Land Rover has existed in some capacity.
Do Toyota’s Rovers exist?
A subsidiary of Toyota Industries, one of the biggest businesses in the world, is Toyota Motor Company. They began back in 1937. The Jeeps that America delivered during World War II served as inspiration for the Rover Company Limited, which later became Land Rover.
Only Toyota Industries, one of the two main firms, is still operational. British Leyland purchased The Rover Group Limited, and the company shortly went out of business.
Who produces Jaguar?
One of the biggest automakers in the world, Tata Motors, is the owner of Jaguar, a British luxury car manufacturer. You may learn more about Jaguar originals and the people that build Jaguar vehicles at Jaguar Newport Beach, which is close to Irvine.
Which Range Rovers are powered by BMW?
I shared the enthusiasm of many other BMW lovers when I learned that the German automaker will be working with Land Rover to deliver V8 engines for more expensive vehicles, notably the top-of-the-line Range Rover P530. Why would BMW fans be thrilled about such a collaboration? because building a relationship between the two brands is really cool and because Range Rovers are pretty generally adored.
Only the aforementioned P530, which makes use of a slightly modified version of BMW’s “N63 4.4 liter twin-turbocharged V8, is currently a Range Rover product to use a BMW V8 engine. The V8 still has 523 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque for Range Rover use. To handle some of the utility a Range Rover needs, it has been slightly modified.
It would have been totally natural for Range Rover supporters and consumers to worry that installing a BMW V8 in the engine bay might affect the vehicle’s ability to handle rough terrain. Ranges are robust, sturdy SUVs behind their glitzy exteriors, capable of off-roading that would put most Jeeps to shame. For this reason, Range Rover engines need to be a little bit tougher. It makes sense that BMW engines would be reluctant to be used in a Range Rover because they aren’t normally designed to handle the steep inclines and deep water wading that Range Rovers can handle.
But the Range Rover P530 was given a new, taller air intake on the BMW N63, enabling it to wade through up to 35.4 inches of water. It also received a new oil sump so that it could withstand the sharp angles and back-and-forth sloshing that a Range might subject it to without depriving the engine of oil.
The good thing about this is that BMW buyers may now be more likely to choose a Range Rover P530 over, say, an X7 because they can now purchase a car with greater off-road capability while still maintaining some BMW DNA. Additionally, BMW V8 or not, the P530 can still manage all a true Range needs to manage, according to Range Rover customers.
Does BMW own Land Rover?
Maurice Wilks began work on the original vehicle’s design in 1947. On his farm in Newborough, Anglesey, Wilks, the main designer at the Rover Company, collaborated with his brother Spencer, the managing director of Rover. [11] The Jeep[12] may have had an effect on the design, and the prototype, subsequently known as Centre Steer, was constructed using Jeep axles and a Jeep chassis. [13] Early cars were only available in a variety of light green hues due to military surplus sources of airplane cockpit paint. All vehicles during this time period had solid box-section ladder-frame chassis, starting with the Land Rover series I. [14] At Long Bennington, early vehicles like the Series I underwent field testing and were built with field maintenance in mind.
The hyphen in Land-Rover, as depicted in the emblem, started to disappear once Land Rover Limited was established in 1978.
[15]
Land Rover Ltdsubsidiary of BL
The company Land Rover has been around since 1978. It was previously a product line of the Rover Company that was later incorporated into the Rover-Triumph division of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BL), which was formed in 1967 after Leyland Motor Corporation acquired Rover. The continued commercial success of the original Land Rover series models, and later the Range Rover in the 1970s amid BL’s well-documented financial difficulties, led to the creation of a separate Land Rover company, though still under the BL banner, remaining a part of the ensuing Rover Group in 1988 under the ownership of British Aerospace after the remnants of British Leyland were broken up and privatized.
BMW era
BMW purchased Rover Group plc, which included Land Rover, on January 31, 1994. When BMW split up the Rover Group in 2000, Land Rover was sold to Ford Motor Company and included to its Premier Automotive Group. Prior to the 1997 release of Land Rover’s first unibody vehicle, the Freelander, the shift to BMW ownership barely overlapped with the debut of the second generation Range Rover. The Range Rover III, the first vehicle with an independent suspension and a monocoque frame, was presented by Ford in late 2001, and a large portion of its development was handled by BMW. [16]
Ford era
Ford further distanced Land Rover from its customary boxed ladder-frames in 2004 when it unveiled a new generation Discovery with a “Integrated Body Frame” following the debut of the all-new Range Rover in 2001. Only the Defender kept using Land Rover’s established since 1948 foundations after that. With the replacement of the mk. II Discovery, the Rover V8 engine was no longer used in Land Rovers.
Ford also bought the Rover name from BMW in 2006 for about $6 million. As ‘Rover’ might be confused with the Land Rover brand in the US 4×4 market, BMW had kept control of the trademark and permitted MG Rover to use it until that company’s demise in 2005, at which point it was offered to Ford Motor Company, which by that point already owned Land Rover. Ford made the decision to sell Land Rover and Jaguar Cars public on June 11, 2007. Initial interest in buying the brands from Ford Motor Company was shown by private equity firms including Alchemy Partners of the UK, TPG Capital, Ripplewood Holdings, Cerberus Capital Management, and One Equity Partners of the US, Tata Motors of India, and a consortium made up of Mahindra & Mahindra of India and Apollo Management. [17] [18] Ford formally proclaimed Tata to be the preferred bidder on January 1st, 2008. [19] Ford announced on March 26th, 2008, that it had reached an agreement with Tata Motors to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover businesses, and that it hoped to close the deal by the end of the second quarter of 2008. [20]
Tata Motors era
As a wholly owned subsidiary with British registration, Jaguar Land Rover Limited was founded on January 18, 2008 by Tata Motors, a division of the Tata Group. The two firms were to be purchased from FordJaguar Cars Limited and Land Rover using the new corporation as a holding company. The cost of that acquisition, which was completed on 2 June 2008, was 1.7 billion. [21] [22][23] [24] The rights to three additional British brands, including the Daimler mark and the two defunct brands Lanchester and Rover, were included in the agreement to purchase Land Rover and Jaguar Cars. [25]
The group, which had previously operated as two distinct businesses (Jaguar Cars Limited and Land Rover), though on an integrated basis, underwent a fundamental restructure on January 1, 2013. The assets of Land Rover were transferred to the new firm, which was given the name Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC and changed the name of Jaguar Cars Limited to Jaguar Land Rover Limited. As a result, Land Rover and Jaguar Cars ceased to be independent car manufacturing companies, and Jaguar Land Rover Limited was given control over the design, production, and marketing of both Jaguar and Land Rover branded goods in the UK. [26]
Timeline
- 1947: Using Jeep chassis and components, Rover’s chief designer Maurice Wilks and his team build a prototype. [27]
- 1948: On April 30, 1948, the Amsterdam Motor Show hosted the formal debut of the first Land Rover.
Ford owns Range Rover, right?
Most likely, you are aware that Land Rovers were once owned by BMW and that they were originally the British Jeep, but did you know that the first Land Rover had the steering wheel in the middle and that tank treads were once a factory option? We dug deep into their history and discovered 20 facts about Land Rover that you definitely didn’t know.
1. Land Rovers have been in production for 30 more years than their business has. Since 1948, when they surpassed Jeeps as the second-oldest four-wheel-drive cars in automotive history, Land Rovers have been manufactured. They were originally produced by Rover, but Land Rover as a company wasn’t established until 1978 as a result of some rather peculiar British mishandling of the automotive sector.
2. The steering wheel was in the centre of the first Land Rover. Because the designer had used one on his Welsh farm, it was modeled after a Jeep from World War II. The steering wheel was simply placed in the centre by the designer to make things straightforward and more tractor-like. By doing this, he also avoided having to create two distinct models of the vehicle for the left- and right-hand drive markets.
3. They provided sponsorship for the best college ride. In the past, LR would lend students from Oxford and Cambridge trucks so they could go to locations like Singapore and the Sahara “for the purpose of study.” Do long car trips earn you points at school? We didn’t believe it.
4. A badass designer of jet engines was the father of Land Rover’s larger son, the Range Rover. Charles S. King assisted Rolls Royce in the creation of their first jet engines after World War II. Even today, RR continues to produce some of the best jet engines available.
5. Also, how about those jet engines? Charlie created a vehicle around one and established the first land speed record powered by a turbine. “Hey Charlie, what should we do with all these spare jet engines built for airplanes?” can be a hypothetical conversation. I’m going to bolt one to a car and ride across the desert on top of it, says Charlie.
6. In the 1950s, you could order a Land Rover from the Rover factory with tank treads because, well, f*ck you, that’s why. A Scotsman came up with the idea for the Series II Cuthbertson and realized that treads would allow the SUV to traverse the Highlands without sinking into the soft ground. According to legend, this stunt was first intended to humiliate the English because they lacked the intelligence to think of it on their own. But eventually, this was a factory choice.
7. They created the Monster Truck thirty years ahead of everyone else. The British Forestry Commission ordered in the 1950s that a road-going vehicle be developed that could traverse even the deepest mud holes. The first monster truck was created by Land Rover with the help of some strong Studebaker axles and four tractor tires that were attached to a Series IIA.
8. They also made the world’s toughest off-road challenge their mistress for 20 years. With primarily stock cars, Land Rover dominated the Camel Trophy, which involved journeys through Siberia, the Amazon, Tierra del Fuego, and the Australian Outback. Exceptionally, inflatable boats have amazing functionality.
9. Range Rovers didn’t exist until the 1970s, yet the first one was created in the 1950s. A little more than 50 years before today’s crossover SUVs, there was a vehicle named the Road Rover that was built on a car basis.
10. Because Land Rover detested paying taxes, they went to considerable measures to prevent their customers from having to as well. According to the taxman’s definitions, the Defender 110 could theoretically accommodate up to 12 people, making it a “bus.” Because of this status, they were excluded from the harsh taxation of passenger vehicles. Additionally, you get to use bus lanes and avoid the annoying London traffic.
11. Naturally, they created floating SUVs. If you plan to float your SUV down a river, you must have complete confidence in your flotation gear.
12. Their military vehicles resemble miniature automobiles in comparison to Hummers. The 101 Forward Vehicle, which was designed to pull howitzer cannons, is essentially the Unimog of Britain. Because the driver sat in front of the front wheels, it was known as the Forward Vehicle. Crumple zones were obviously not the main issue here. However, getting into the driver’s compartment is a little difficult, so they had to incorporate a step inside the steering wheel.
13. The initial prototype was exactly how the Range Rover was created. In the auto sector, such hardly ever occurs. The lines were never altered when they put the 1966 prototype together, which eventually led to production.
14. The Range Rover was showcased in the Louvre thanks to that design’s success. It was regarded as a marvel of industrial design, comparable to the real Louvre with all the artwork.
15. The Velar name was given to the first 25 prototype Range Rovers. All of this was done to keep the public from making Range Rover-related assumptions.
16. There were six wheels on the second Range Rover ever made. It is still in operation today after being transformed into an airport fire vehicle.
17. Range Rover won the illustrious race from Paris to Dakar, Senegal, in its inaugural Dakar Rally. They were an entirely French team, and they sort of dominated.
18. The business that owned Range Rover wasn’t always the same. Land Rover was separated from Rover when BMW acquired the Rover company in 1994, and it was later sold to Ford in 2000. Until Ford acquired Range Rover in 2006, they remained separate businesses. They are now both a part of Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by Tata Motors, the company that creates the cheapest cars in the world.
19. Charlie King, unsurprisingly, detested the fact that Range Rovers were upgraded to luxury cars. He publicly stated that they had evolved into “an acceptable alternative to Mercedes or BMW for the conceited, egotistical driver.
20. Land Rover will be the only automaker operating by the year 2139. Only the 101 Forward Vehicle will be produced, and they will be utilized as taxis. That’s what they said in Judge Dredd, at least. By the way, a couple of these were created for the film, and a few of them are still being driven by some quite bizarre and amazing individuals around the streets of Britain.