Tom Crotty, a director at Ineos, said the company envisages a market in the "tens of thousands, not hundreds" per year for the new car and that building it Britain would be an important selling feature.

"Having Made in Britain would add a certain cachet but we have to be realistic," he said. " We want to build this but we are not going to die in a ditch over the location."

Building a factory and getting design work would mean that the first vehicles would not be ready until 2020, Mr Crotty said, with pricing expecting to be around the same level as the old Defender - which cost around £25,000 for an entry-level model.

Producing a car is not a vanity project for Mr Ratcliffe, and the company sees a real market opportunity said Mr Crotty.

"It's a massive undertaking but we believe we are pretty good at big projects," he said. "We've just spent $2bn on a project that allows us to import gas from the other side of the world."

Ineos has appointed Dirk Heilmann, the company’s former head of engineering and technology, to lead the newly formed Ineos Automotive, which is now recruiting experts from the car industry.