Jaguar Land Rover has officially opened its new engine manufacturing plant at Wolverhampton in the UK's West Midlands. Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh were on hand for the formal occasion.
Representing an investment of £500 million, the new factory will house 1400 new staff, recruited to build JLR's all important Ingenium engine family. Introduced in Jaguar's new XE model, the four-cylinder engines – comprising both diesel and petrol powerplants – will be the cornerstone of Jaguar Land Rover products in years to come. To meet the needs of draconian emissions legislation in the near future, the engines have to be built to a sophisticated, high-tech standard, making the new engine plant an important adjunct to Ingenium's success.
"The Engine Manufacturing Centre represents all that is great about British engineering," JLR CEO Dr Ralf Speth was quoted saying in a press release. "Jaguar Land Rover is a business driven by design, technology and innovation and this investment and level of job creation is yet further evidence of our commitment to advancing the capability of the UK automotive sector and its supply chain."
The engine manufacturing centre, which is partly powered by 21,000 solar panels and measures 100,000 square metres in area, accommodates a test facility in addition to the manufacturing and assembly halls. According to JLR, the solar panels will generate around 30 per cent of the power needed to run the plant.