Land Rover Timeline

• 1947: Rover's chief designer Maurice Wilks and his associates create a prototype using Jeep chassis and components
• 1948: The first Land Rover was officially launched on 30 April 1948, at the Amsterdam Motor Show
• 1958: Series II launched
• 1961: Series IIA began production
• 1967: Rover becomes part of Leyland Motors, later British Leyland (BL) as Rover Triumph
• 1970: Introduction of the Range Rover
• 1971: Series III launched
• 1974: Land Rover abandons US market facing competitive pressure from Japanese brands
• 1975: BL collapses and is nationalised, publication of the Ryder Report recommends that Land Rover be split from Rover and be treated as a separate company within BL and becomes part of the new commercial vehicle division called the Land Rover Leyland Group
• 1976: One-millionth Land Rover leaves the production line
• 1978: Land Rover Limited formed as a separate subsidiary of British Leyland
• 1980: Rover car production ends at Solihull with the transfer of SD1 production to Cowley, Oxford; Solihull is now exclusively for Land Rover manufacture. 5-door Range Rover introduced
• 1983: Land Rover 90 (Ninety)/110 (One-Ten)/127 (renamed Defender in 1990) introduced
• 1986: BL plc becomes Rover Group plc; Project Llama started
• 1987: Range Rover is finally introduced to the US market, following many years of demand being filled by grey market sales[29][30]
• 1988: Rover Group is privatised and becomes part of British Aerospace, and is now known simply as Rover
• 1989: Introduction of Discovery
• 1990: The Ninety and One-Ten range of models are given the generic name of Defender
• 1994: Rover Group is taken over by BMW. Introduction of second-generation Range Rover. (The original Range Rover was continued under the name 'Range Rover Classic' until 1995)
• 1997: Land Rover introduces the Special Edition Discovery XD with AA yellow paint, subdued wheels, SD type roof racks, and a few other off-road upgrades directly from the factory. Produced only for the North American market, the Special Vehicles Division of Land Rover created only 250 of these bright yellow SUVs.
• 1997: Introduction of Freelander
• 1998: Introduction of mark II Discovery
• 2000: BMW breaks up the Rover Group and sells Land Rover to Ford for £1.8 billion
• 2002: Introduction of third-generation Range Rover
• 2004: Introduction of second-generation Discovery, marketed as the Discovery 3, or LR3, depending on market
• 2005: Introduction of Range Rover Sport
• 2005: Adoption of Jaguar AJ-V8 engine to replace the BMW M62 V8 in the Range Rover
• 2006: Announcement of a new 2.4-litre diesel engine, 6-speed gearbox, dash and forward-facing rear seats for Defender. Introduction of the second generation of Freelander (Freelander 2). Ford acquires the Rover trademark from BMW, who previously licensed its use to MG Rover Group
• 8 May 2007: 4,000,000th Land Rover rolls off the production line, a Discovery 3 (LR3), donated to The Born Free Foundation
• 12 June 2007: Announcement from the Ford Motor Company that it plans to sell Land Rover and also Jaguar Cars
• August 2007: Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra as well as financial sponsors Cerberus Capital Management, TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management expressed their interest in purchasing Jaguar Cars and Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company.
• 26 March 2008: Ford agreed to sell the Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors.
• 2 June 2008: Tata Motors finalised their purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford and put them into their new subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover
• 2010: Introduction of Discovery 4 / LR4
• 2011: The Range Rover Evoque introduced
• 2012: Fourth-generation Range Rover was exhibited at the 2012 Paris Motor Show
• 1 January 2013: Land Rover and Jaguar Cars merged to form a single company, Jaguar Land Rover Limited, producing vehicles under both marques
• 2014: The New Discovery Range was unveiled at the 2014 New York Motor Show
• 1 March 2017: The Range Rover Velar was unveiled in London
• June 2018: representatives of the company Land Rover announced the launch of a new project called "Cortex", for the implementation of which will be spent about $5 million. The goal of this project is "to create self-propelled cars-robots that are able to independently navigate off-road in all weather conditions."
• September 2019: Land Rover announces it is working on a remote control system for its new Defender that would allow low-speed driving from outside the car
• 2020: Land Rover Defender (L663) is released.