The design for the original Land Rover vehicle was started in 1947 by Maurice Wilks, chief designer at the Rover Company, on his farm in Newborough, Anglesey.[7] The design may have been influenced by the Jeep[8] and the prototype, later nicknamed Centre Steer, was built on a Jeep chassis and axles.[9] The early choice of colour was dictated by military surplus supplies of aircraft cockpit paint, so early vehicles only came in various shades of light green; all models until recently feature sturdy box section ladder-frame chassis. Early vehicles like the Series I, were field-tested at Long Bennington and designed to be field-serviced.

Land Rover as a company has existed since 1978. Prior to this, it was a product line of the Rover Company which was subsequently absorbed into the Rover-Triumph division of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BL) following Leyland Motor Corporation’s takeover of Rover in 1967. The ongoing commercial success of the original Land Rover series models, and latterly the Range Rover in the 1970s in the midst of BL's well-documented business troubles prompted the establishment of a separate Land Rover company but still under the BL umbrella, remaining part of the subsequent Rover Group in 1988, under the ownership of British Aerospace after the remains of British Leyland were broken up and privatised. In 1994 Rover Group plc was acquired by BMW. In 2000, Rover Group was broken up by BMW and Land Rover was sold to Ford Motor Company, becoming part of itsPremier Automotive Group. In 2006 Ford purchased the Rover brand from BMW for around £6 million.

In 2008, Ford Motor Company sold Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors. Included in the deal were the rights to three other British brands: Jaguar's own Daimler marque, as well as two dormant brands Lanchester andRover.[10] BMW and Ford had previously retained ownership of the Rover brand to protect the integrity of the Land Rover brand, with which 'Rover' might be confused in the US 4x4 market; the Rover brand was originally used under licence by MG Rover until it collapsed in 2005, at which point it was re-acquired by the then Ford Motor Company owned Land Rover Limited. This sale also included the dormant Rover brand.[11][12][13] As of August 2012, most Land Rovers in production are powered by Ford engines.[14] Under the terms of the acquisition, Tata has the right to buy engines from Ford until 2019.[15] In 2011, Tata confirmed plans that it is investing $559 million to build an engine assembly plant in the British West Midlands. However, it was only stated that the plant will produce four-cylinder engines. The eight-cylinder engines used in Land Rovers were not mentioned.[16]