Land Rover history had begun in post WW II Britany. The very first Land Rover was built in 1947 by two brothers, Maurice and Spencer Wilks. Maurice was chief designer of a Rover, British car manufacturing company and Spencer was its Managing Director. Brothers got inspiration from military 4×4 Willys Jeep.
Land Rover has been very warmly received by the market. Starting with 3 thousand cars in the first year of production, the company increased its output to 8,000 in 1949 and doubled it in 1950. In subsequent years, production capacity was increasing steadily, reaching 30,000 cars in 1958, and 50,000 – in 1968. The car, created in fact only to make use of idle plants, overshadowed production of passenger cars which used to be the main Rover products.
In 1997 Land Rover Freelander was launched. More compact than Discovery, this sport utility vehicle became Europe’s best-selling four-wheel drive model. It was produced for 19 years, changing two generations.