Jaguar Land Rover to double Midland engine plant capacity

Facility, fourth in UK, will employ 1,400 up from 700 presently

Tata Motors-owned UK brands Jaguar Land Rover has announced doubling of capacity of its Midland-based engine manufacturing centre, with an investment of £450 million (Rs 4,500 crore).

The engine manufacturing centre is JLR’s first venture into in-house engine manufacturing for low emission, four-cylinder diesel engines from the Ingenium brand of engine family.

JLR depends on Ford Motor Company for engine requirements.

Though JLR did not elaborate on details about the targeted increased capacity, it said the facility, which is its fourth in the UK, would employ 1,400, up from 700 currently. The centre recently rolled out its 50,000th engine.

Ralf Speth, chief executive, said, “The engine manufacturing centre is a strategically significant facility for JLR. The decision to expand our operations at the site provides a clear signal of our commitment to meeting customer demand for cleaner and more efficient engines, whilst developing the skills and capability that Britain needs if it is to remain globally competitive.”  

While the facility currently provides engines for the Jaguar XE, XF and the Range Rover Evoque, it will graduate to building petrol-fired engines in the near future.

These engines are later shipped to global assembly centres such as China and India.