by An unknown Kozak SUV was spotted on the roads of Kyiv. According to a TopJyr subscriber, the car was seen on Bazhan Avenue and, as the photo’s author initially thought, it was a Land Rover Defender pickup.
In fact, it’s clearly visible even to the naked eye that the unknown SUV really resembles a Defender. But neither at the back nor at the front is there a Land Rover logo, instead, there’s an inscription Kozak.
TopJyr studied this issue in detail and found out that we have a rebranded Morattab vehicle in front of us. This is an Iranian brand under which Land Rover SUVs have been produced (under license) since 1962.
The Iranian Def is produced under the name Morattab Pazhan. It retains an aluminum body with separate steel parts, but at the same time, it has acquired new plastic door handles, a V6 engine, and a five-speed transmission from Hyundai Galloper (the Korean version of the 1980s Mitsubishi Pajero). Moreover, the suspension became spring-based, almost the same as the original British Defender.
Engines for Morattab are only gasoline (in Iran, under local laws, only owners of heavy transport have the right to buy diesel fuel). For many years, only Iranian residents could buy such cars, but over time, SUVs for the domestic market began to reach abroad.
How the Iranian copy of Land Rover ended up in Ukraine is unknown. Likewise, the story with the logo is not very clear, as there are two options. First: the car owner simply replaced the logo. Second, someone in Ukraine is trying to establish the production of Iranian SUVs under the Ukrainian brand.
