Licensed production · US count is not the world count
A US-first archive has to say so out loud: the Jeep was built under licence on four continents, sometimes for longer than in America. Mitsubishi built it until 1998. Mahindra never stopped. These national branches carry their own serial schemes and cannot be added into a US production total.
France
1955–1966
M201 (licensed MB)
Built a near-exact Willys MB under licence — ~27,628 units. The M201 was the French army's standard light vehicle from just after WWII, and the last examples did not leave French service until 2000, a ~45-year run for a WWII-pattern design. A restorer trap: the M201 uses French-market electrics and metric fasteners, so US MB parts do not interchange one-for-one.
Japan
1953–1998
J-series (CJ-3B-based)
The longest licensed run of all — 45 years, ~200,000 units, 30-plus configurations, almost all based on the tall-hood CJ-3B. Mitsubishi added diesel versions the American line never offered and only introduced right-hand drive years in. When Mitsubishi ended production on 4 June 1998, it retired the classic flat-fender/tall-hood Jeep lineage 12 years after the American CJ died.
India
1947–present
CJ-3B → Major → Classic → Thar / Roxor
An unbroken line to the present day. Mahindra began assembling Willys CJ-2A/CJ-3A kits in 1947 and licence-built the CJ-3B from 1954; by 1967 it was ~97% locally made. The diesel Mahindra Classic ran until 2011, and the CJ-3B heritage lives on in the modern Mahindra Thar and the US-market Roxor — meaning a recognizable flat-fender Jeep descendant is still in production ~80 years on. The Roxor's grille prompted a 2018–2020 trade-dress dispute with FCA.
Brazil
1957–1983
CJ-5, Rural wagon, pickup
Willys-Overland do Brasil built the MB, the Jeep-based Rural wagon, and a pickup from the late 1950s. Ford do Brasil bought the subsidiary in 1967 and continued the lines with Ford badges. This local branch is the backdrop to the 1980 Camel Trophy, which hired Brazilian-market CJ-6s from Hertz.
Spain
1960–early 1990s
CJ-3B, SV-series forward-control, Comando
VIASA (a division of railway-builder CAF) licence-built the CJ-3B in Zaragoza, stamping early serials "MB-CJ3B". From 1963–1980 it built the unique SV-series forward-control trucks — reportedly inspired by a "Wide-Trac" forward-control prototype Brooks Stevens designed for Willys in 1960, an independent second source that Stevens did Forward Control-family design work.
Argentina
1956–1970s
SJ Cherokee (sold as "Jeep Gladiator")
A naming collision worth flagging loudly: IKA built the full-size SJ Cherokee in Córdoba and sold it as the "Jeep Gladiator" — a Cherokee SUV, not the J-series pickup that "Gladiator" means everywhere else. Powered by the local Tornado (later Torino) inline-six.
Mexico
1960s–1980s
SJ Cherokee and other AMC/Jeep products
VAM assembled AMC/Jeep products for the Mexican market, including the SJ Cherokee, with its own tuned AMC-based engines and some variants never sold in the US. Largely unresearched here — a genuine deep-cut thread.