Land Rover and Stellantis have announced a partnership to develop a new Defender pickup truck for the U.S. market, according to an Automotive News report dated May 20, 2026. The agreement, described as a nonbinding Memorandum of Understanding, aims to rebuild product offerings for both brands. The first collaboration product will be the Defender pickup, manufactured likely at the Warren Truck Plant outside Detroit.
The alliance addresses tariff challenges Jaguar Land Rover has faced under the second Trump administration, allowing the automaker to circumvent tariffs while entering the U.S. $80 billion pickup truck market. American customers are happy to pay big money for upscale trucks, yet luxury automakers have avoided such vehicles for over a decade following the discontinuation of models like the Lincoln Blackwood and Cadillac Escalade EXT.
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The Defender pickup would follow a precedent; the previous generation included a pickup variant sold internationally until 2016. However, engineers face a key challenge: the current Defender SUV uses unibody construction, while all Stellantis truck models employ body-on-frame platforms. No timeline or manufacturing details have been finalized.
We will update this story when we receive a reply from Stellantis.
