Jaguar Land Rover to invest $2 billion in Slovakian plant

Tata Motors’ luxury carmaker subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover will invest about $2 billion in the first phase to set up its new manufacturing unit in the Republic of Slovakia, reported the Hindu Business Line.

Quoting Slovak’s Minister of Economy Vazil Hudak, the report said that JLR plans to invest $2 billion in the first phase, which would result in the generation of 400 jobs in the plant and 50,000 supplementary jobs in the allied sectors.

JLR had earlier announced in August its plans to set up the new plant in Slovakia, finally resting all speculation on the location of the automaker’s latest manufacturing base.

The factory in Slovakia is intended to help JLR substantially increase its production, with a feasibility study set to explore plans to create capacity for up to 300,000 vehicles. This could help take JLR’s global output to closer to 800,000 vehicles a year. JLR has confirmed that the plant would build the latest, lightweight aluminium Jaguar Land Rover models, with the first cars due off the production line in 2018. The factory is also designed to add to existing plants rather than replace them.

JLR has invested more than £11 billion (Rs 108,273 crore) in product creation and capital expenditure in the past five years, boosting its workforce by 20,000 to 36,000 around the world. This includes more than £500 million (Rs 4,921 crore) on a new engine plant in the Midlands, with 1400 new jobs, and significant investment in plants at Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull. It is also set to start building cars at the Magna Steyr plant in Austria.