Jensen Motors

2001 revival

A revival in 2001 was short lived. By the end of 2002, production of their only model, the £40,000 S-V8 – had ceased.

After a £10 million investment, including contributions from Liverpool City Council and the Department of Trade and Industry, a two-seater convertible, the Jensen S-V8, was launched at the 1998 British International Motor Show. An initial production run of 300 deposit-paid vehicles was planned at a price of £40,000 each, but by October 1999 it was confirmed that only 110 orders had been placed.

The new Liverpool factory in Speke commenced production in August 2001, but troubles with manufacture meant production ceased with only 20 leaving the factory and another 18 cars left partially completed. The company went into administration in July 2002. The Jensen name and partially completed cars were later sold to SV Automotive of Carterton, Oxfordshire, in 2003 who decided to complete the building of 12 of the cars, retaining the others for spare parts, and finally selling them for £38,070.

2026

In early 2026, Jensen International Automotive announced plans to launch an "all-new, ultra high performance British GT", inspired by the Interceptor later that year. The new Jensen will reportedly be built in very low numbers in the UK, powered by a V8 engine and built upon an aluminium chassis, designed to compete with companies such as Aston Martin.

In the late 1930s, Jensen diversified into the production of commercial vehicles under the marque JNSN, including the manufacture of a series of innovative lightweight trucks, built with unrestricted aluminium alloys, for Reynolds Tube and the prototype for the articulated Jen-Tug which went into production in the late 1940s.

During the Second World War Jensen concentrated on the war effort and produced components for military vehicles including the turrets for tanks, and on the production of specialised ambulances and fire-engines.

After the war production of the Jen-Tug thrived and Jensen also produced a new range of JNSN lightweight diesel trucks and chassis which were used for a variety of vehicles including pantechnicons and buses. A handful of Jensen buses and coaches were produced for independent operators into the 1950s, with Perkins diesel engines, David Brown gearboxes, and bodywork by a variety of bodybuilders of the time, which had the distinctive large JNSN marque cut into the sheet metal on the front of the bus, below the windscreen. In the 1950s Jensen were chosen by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) to build the bodies for the four-wheel-drive Austin Gipsy. In 1958 they built a small number of Jensen Tempo light commercial vans, pick-ups and minibuses, a German original design, built under licence in the UK, Chassis number 5 that was the 1958 commercial motor-show vehicle, fitted with a Ruthmann cherry picker, is the only known survivor and is currently being restored.