JLR to invest 1.5 billion pounds in new vehicle architecture

The first model will be a new mid-sized sports sedan from Jaguar, which will be launched in 2015.

September 11, 2013 01:42 am | Updated June 02, 2016 10:57 am IST - MUMBAI:

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), owned by Tata Motors, on Tuesday, announced that it is investing around 1.5 billion pounds to set up an all-new aluminium vehicle architecture in its forthcoming vehicles. A statement from the company said that to support this, it would be adding 1,700 new jobs in the U.K. at its advanced manufacturing facility in Solihull.

The first new model to use this new architecture will be a new mid-sized sports sedan from Jaguar, which will be launched in 2015. The vehicle will feature the first engine to be built at JLR’s new 500 million pound engine manufacturing centre near Wolverhampton, which will build the new family of petrol and diesel engines for JLR.

The new 1,700 jobs at the Solihull site in the Midlands takes the total U.K. manufacturing jobs announced by JLR over the last three years to almost 11,000, the statement said.

JLR has three advanced manufacturing facilities in the UK – in Solihull and Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands and in Halewood on Merseyside.

“Today’s announcement signals Jaguar Land Rover’s ambitions to push the boundaries and redefine premium car ownership,” Ralf Speth, CEO, JLR said in a statement, adding, “the introduction of a world class all-new aluminium vehicle architecture means we will be more competitive, flexible and efficient delivering exciting new products for our customers around the world.”

Record sales in August

JLR also announced a 28 per cent growth in sales in August 2013 over the year-ago figure at 27,852 vehicles— it’s best-ever August sales figures. While Jaguar sales grew 92 per cent to 5,405 units, Land Rover sold 18 per cent more vehicles at 22,447 vehicles, a company statement said.

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