The 1,000,000th Discovery rolls off the production line and the Journey of Discovery begins
The 1,000,000th Land Rover Discovery has been made at our Solihull Manufacturing Plant near Birmingham in the UK. To celebrate this milestone, and the Discovery’s class defining versatility and all-round capability, this 1,000,000th vehicle will embark on a ‘Journey of Discovery’ from its birthplace in Birmingham to Beijing in China, bisecting some of the most wild and remote regions on the planet. This 8,000mile journey is also part of our most ambitious fund-raising challenge yet, as we aim to raise £1 million for our global Humanitarian Partner, The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Production of the 1,000,000th Discovery vehicle comes 23 years after the original model was produced. As the third model to come to market, in between the luxurious Range Rover and the rugged Defender, the Discovery has become an international success story, picking up more than 200 awards around the world and standing as an excellent example of UK design, engineering and manufacturing. As one of the world’s most practical vehicles, the Discovery can seat seven passengers, has a load space volume of up to 2,500 litres and is packed with technology including Land Rover’s award-winning Terrain Response System.
To celebrate this momentous achievement and to kick off the ‘Journey of Discovery’, a special event was held on Wednesday for employees at the Jaguar Land Rover Solihull manufacturing plant. The 1,000,000th Discovery vehicle (below) was bid farewell by a reception that included some of the world’s most famous explorers and adventurers, all of whom have put their faith in the Discovery in some of the world’s most challenging environments. This included Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Ben Saunders, Bear Grylls, Ray Mears and Monty Halls. See the photos from this below:
The challenge follows in the tyre tracks of ‘The First Overland Journey’ of 1955, in which a team in Series 1 Land Rovers set out from Birmingham to Beijing. That journey had to divert to Singapore, but in the spirit of the original challenge the Discovery will be crossing many of Land Rover’s major markets including the UK, Russia and China. You can watch a short documentary of the original challenge below.
This journey also presents us with the opportunity to launch our most ambitious fund-raising project yet. Our aim is to raise £1million (GBP) for our Global Humanitarian Partner, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). This money will be used to support a much needed water sanitation project in Uganda. This is in addition to the three-year global initiative “Reaching Vulnerable People Around the World”. This initiative, launched in 2010, provides additional support for IFRC programmes in over 15 countries worldwide.
To understand the fundraising initiative and why it means so much to us, please watch the video below. Members of the public can follow the journey and donate to the fundraising project at www.landrover.com/million.
