Jaguar Land Rover invest £355m for new low emission engines
Britain’s car manufacturing industry received another notable boost today, this time from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) who will invest £355m into delivering a new engine plant in Staffordshire, near Wolverhampton.
With another £10m put up by the Government as part of its ‘Grant for Business Investment’ scheme, the facility will manufacture a new family of advanced low-emission engines and create around 750 highly-skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs in the West Midlands region. The plant will be built at a location currently referred to as ‘i54’, a business park in South Staffordshire.
Dr Ralf Speth, CEO of JLR, said the investment was part of the company’s long-term strategy and a major commitment to produce highly-efficient engines for the next generation of Jaguar and Land Rover models.
“As we invest £1.5 billion a year for the next five years on new product developments, expanding our engine range will help us realise the full global potential of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands,” he explained.
“The all-new family of 4 cylinder engines will increase JLR’s capability to offer high performance engines with class-leading levels of refinement, whilst ensuring continued significant reductions in vehicle emissions.”
Tremendous boost
According to Sky News’ Joel Hills, JLR seriously considered locating the plant in India, so the fact they went with the UK was a “recognition of the expertise in the British workforce and manufacturing sector,” said Deputy PM Nick Clegg.
He explained: “Growing our economy has to be the number one priority for Britain, and the Government is not sitting on its hands.
“With initiatives like the Regional Growth Fund, putting up to £10 million into this new plant and Enterprise Zones boosting growth across the country, we’re making the UK a better place to invest and do business.”
Business Secretary Vince Cable deemed it a “tremendous boost” for the UK and the West Midlands.
“This announcement sends out strong signals to potential inward investors across the world and is a huge vote of confidence in our successful automotive sector in the UK and the skills and expertise in our workforce.
“The Government’s support for this project shows we are committed to the ongoing success of UK manufacturing and the UK automotive industry, ensuring the UK remains one of the top destinations for inward investment.”
This is the third boost to UK manufacturing since June after BMW and Nissan announced multi-million pound investments in their respective Oxford and Sunderland plants [links here and here].
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