Land Rover began in 1948 as a product of the British Rover Company: a simple, aluminum-bodied, four-wheel-drive utility vehicle intended as a stopgap after the Second World War. It became one of the most recognized vehicle brands in the world. Land Rover created the luxury off-roader with the Range Rover in 1970, added the Discovery in 1989, passed through the hands of British Leyland, BMW and Ford, and since 2008 has been owned by India’s Tata Motors as part of JLR. Today the company organizes its vehicles into Range Rover, Defender and Discovery families.

Timeline

Year Event
1948 Land Rover Series I debuts in Amsterdam
1970 Range Rover launched
1989 Discovery launched
1990 Defender name adopted
1994 BMW buys Rover Group
2000 Ford buys Land Rover
2008 Tata Motors buys Jaguar Land Rover
2020 New Defender

Rover’s origins

The Rover name dates to the 1880s, when the company built the Rover “safety bicycle”, a design that shaped the modern bicycle. Rover later built respected cars. After the war, with steel rationed and export demand high, brothers Maurice and Spencer Wilks proposed a utility vehicle inspired by the wartime Jeep. Read the Defender history.

Going upmarket

The Range Rover (1970) combined Land Rover capability with comfort and became a luxury icon. The Discovery (1989) offered a family-friendly, more affordable seven-seater. Read the Range Rover history.

Changing owners

Land Rover was part of the nationalized British Leyland group, then the Rover Group, which BMW bought in 1994. BMW’s engineers developed the L322 Range Rover. In 2000, BMW sold Land Rover to Ford, which added it to its Premier Automotive Group with Jaguar. In 2008, Ford sold both to Tata Motors.

JLR today

Under Tata, Jaguar Land Rover (now JLR) invested heavily, launching the Evoque, Velar, a new Defender and the current Range Rover. It now markets Range Rover, Defender and Discovery as distinct brands, with the Land Rover name as their heritage.