Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) today announced that it has invested £370 million to upgrade its UK manufacturing facilities and increase productivity as it prepares to launch the new Range Rover in 170 countries around the world.
As part of the investment package, JLR has installed a new aluminium body shop at the company’s Solihull plant, along with upgrades to paint-applications technologies, trim assembly, warehousing and JLR’s first customer handover centre.
The arrival of the latest model follows a significant investment in all-aluminium production processes at Land Rover’s Solihull plant, where more than 6,800 workers are employed on Range Rover and other models.
Dr. Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Officer, said, “As the UK’s leading automotive investor in R&D we are proud of the work that has gone into developing the new technologies and innovations to make the new Range Rover possible.
“Through a £370m investment in our manufacturing facilities we have been able to build the world’s first SUV with lightweight all-aluminium construction, a car that is 20% lighter, with fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions reduced by 22%.”
Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive, said, “Today’s announcement by Jaguar Land Rover is excellent news for the UK automotive industry, the wider economy and the thousands of workers the company employs in vehicle and engine manufacturing.
“The wave of recent investments from global automotive companies demonstrate the growing strength and competitiveness of our manufacturing sector and shows what can happen when industry and government work together to build a better business environment.”
As part of its recent expansion, Jaguar Land Rover has:
- opened a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Solihull;
- begun work on a £355 million engine factory near Wolverhampton;
- moved to 24-hour production at Halewood on Merseyside to meet demand for the Range Rover Evoque;
- created 1,100 new jobs at Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich plant;
- launched Land Rover assembly in India; and
- signed a joint venture agreement with the aim of launching manufacturing in China, subject to regulation approval.
Dr. Speth added, “Jaguar Land Rover is firing on all cylinders, generating export revenues of close to £8 billion a year as we meet demand for a model-range that justifies continued expansion in our UK facilities and elsewhere.”
The first sales of the fourth-generation Range Rover will begin this month following a three-year engineering project, supporting 1,000 jobs in design, product development and manufacturing. Deliveries to customers will start in early 2013, some 40 years after the first Range Rover was unveiled.
Click through to read more about investment announcements from UK automotive companies over the last two years.
