Jaguar Land Rover will begin producing “a range of all-new” aluminum cars in Slovakia by late 2018, the automaker announced today.
Construction on the $1.5 billion plant will commence next year. The facility will initially produce 150,000 vehicles a year and will eventually employ around 2,800 workers.
Slovakia, a major auto production hub, won out over a number of other possible locations for the plant, including the U.S. and Mexico. But JLR ultimately picked mainland Europe, which is now the automaker’s largest sales region globally. JLR sold almost 100,000 vehicles during the first 11 months of this year here.
The new plant in Nitra, western Slovakia adds to JLR’s other new hubs outside the U.K. The automaker opened a new joint venture in China and began construction of a new manufacturing plant in Brazil last year. Jaguar also has an assembly plant in India, where its parent company Tata Motors is based.
In addition to the new facilities, JLR will expand its engine plant in Wolverhampton, U.K., which currently builds the automaker’s new Ingenium engines including the 2.0-liter diesel turbo-four. The expansion, which will double the size of the plant, could help JLR’s rumored plan to build new powertrains including an inline-six and an inline-three cylinder.
Source: Jaguar Land Rover
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