What Was the Predecessor of Land Rover?
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Land Rover's predecessor was an agricultural truck. Land Rover originated from the British Rover cars and was developed by Maurice Wilks and Spencer Wilks, the brothers in charge of Rover, based on the chassis and transmission system of the US military Willys Jeep. It was initially designed as a versatile vehicle primarily used for farm transportation. The first vehicle produced by Rover in post-war Britain was an agricultural truck codenamed P-4. From the dramatic shift from small cars to agricultural trucks, Land Rover was born. The main development milestones of Land Rover are as follows: In 1976, Rover was incorporated into the state-owned Leyland Group. In 1978, Land Rover was established as an independent company under the Rover Group. In 1994, German BMW acquired Rover. In 2000, Ford Motor Company paid 3 billion euros (2.7 billion USD) to BMW Group to purchase all its four-wheel-drive series products, including Range Rover, Discovery, Freelander, and Defender. In 2008, due to the financial crisis, Ford sold Land Rover to the Indian company Tata Group for 2.3 billion USD. In 2012, Chery Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Co., Ltd. was officially established. Currently, it offers five models in China: Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Jaguar XFL, Jaguar XEL, and Jaguar E-PACE.