Land Rover is weighing plans to build a pickup truck version of its Defender SUV on American soil through a partnership with Stellantis. According to reports from The Times and Automotive News, the potential project would mark the first tangible result of a collaboration the two automakers initially announced earlier this year.
There’s still been no announcement of an actual agreement between the automakers, but that could come before year’s end.
Tariffs on the brain
The primary driver behind the potential tie-up is navigating heavy import duties. Assembling the new model in the U.S. would allow Land Rover to bypass the long-standing “chicken tax”, a 25-percent tariff on imported light-duty trucks. Land Rover currently imports its entire U.S. lineup, leaving its models vulnerable to additional 10-percent tariffs on UK-built vehicles and 15-percent duties on EU-built cars, such as the Defender SUV, which is made in Slovakia.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Chief Financial Officer Richard Molyneux noted that rather than shifting existing high-volume production, the automaker intends to explore new segments with Defender-branded vehicles developed alongside Stellantis. The expansion aligns with JLR’s broader strategy to scale its U.S. business, particularly as sales in China show signs of slowing down.
The caveats
That all makes sense from a strategic point of view. But several engineering and production questions remain unresolved, namely:
Unibody v body-on-frame - The standard Defender is made with a unibody construction, whereas Stellantis’ current North American pickup facilities specialize in body-on-frame architectures like those underpinning the Ram 1500 and Jeep Gladiator.
Engine appropriateness - Powertrain selection also presents a hurdle. Importing Land Rover’s British-built Ingenium engines would face tariffs, while off-the-shelf Stellantis engines might require modification to meet luxury brand expectations.
Like before, but not
If this does come to pass, it won’t represent the first co-development of a truck by Land Rover's first pickup in the region. Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, British Leyland offered pickup variants of the Series I and Series II in the U.S. A modern Defender pickup, however, would target premium off-road and utility buyers, placing it against competitors like the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster and high-end trims of domestic full-size trucks.
Neither automaker has officially confirmed production specs or launch timelines for the potential joint vehicle.