Design
and manufacturing engineers at JaguarLandRover (JLR) now have their own
benchmark engine in the form of the Ti 240 four-cylinder gasoline engine they
have inserted into the Jaguar XF and XJ models.
Already installed in the Range
Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander, the company has a quarter of
four-cylinder gasoline applications.
When it comes to ‘easing’
their own Hotfire gasoline and diesel engines to be manufactured at the new
state-of-the-art i54 complex adjacent to the M54 Motorway, the challenge for
JLR engineers will not be so much on the installation of the new engines in
vehicles, but the Hotfire engines themselves.
The new engines engineered
into the Jaguar XF and XJ vehicles are ‘customised’ versions of Ford Motor
Company’s 2-litre EcoBoost unit which has a well-established pedigree. With plans
to make the engine in North America at the company’s Brook Park facility near
Cleveland, Ohio, the engine can be deemed an international engine, geared to
meet the demands of customers in Europe and North America.
Built at Ford’s Valencia
engine plant, the 2-litre EcoBoost has proved the test of time; indeed in the
Jaguar XF and XJ models it is in its latest refined state.
Powertrain engineers at
Jaguar’s Whitley facility and their colleagues at the JLR technical centre at Gaydon
know they have to match and even exceed the benchmark 2-litre EcoBoost in order
to retain existing Jaguar customers as well as reach out to new customers in
far-flung parts of the world.
The 'new' four-cylinder gasoline i
240 engine develops a power of 240PS and 340 Nm of torque with CO2 emissions of
203g/km, whereas the 2.2-litre i 200 four-cylinder diesel develops a power of 200PS
and 450Nm of torque. A lower-powered i 163 develops a power of 163PS and a
torque of 400Nm. Emissions of CO2 are 135-139g/km.
Jaguar’s 3-litre V6
gasoline engine develops power and torque respectively of 340PS and 450Nm,
whereas the company’s 3-litre V6 diesel engine (in two versions) develops power
and torque of 240PS and 500Nm, and 275PS and 600Nm respectively. Emissions of
CO2 are given as 159g/m. Both V6 engines are made by Ford – the V6 diesel at
Dagenham; it is well known for its compact graphite iron (CGI) cylinder block.
Although both Jaguar and Land
Rover have built their own engines in the past, the world scene has changed
since those days, and the bar has been raised substantially in the premium
vehicle category where JLR trades.
This places additional
pressure on JLR to meet these challenges, not only in terms of design and
development excellence, but in manufacturing and supply chain
cost-effectiveness. In manufacturing, machining, assembly and test will required to be 'best in class' while the supply chain, in all its forms, will have a vital role to play in terms of quality, timing and cost. The very latest standards in Certificate of Production (COP) also will be required.
With the engine as the ‘noble’
component in any vehicle product – because today this largely determines the
emissions contributions of the vehicle – powertrain engineers have their
particular challenges to meet in areas of design, development, purchasing and
manufacturing. The company is likely to continue outsourcing transmissions –
automatic transmissions for ZF in Germany.
With BMW, Ford, Honda,
Nissan and Toyota all making engines in the UK, there is no doubt the country
has become a world-class centre for the manufacture of these components. Each
company places its own imprint on the engines it makes through the design and
manufacturing processes it adopts.
From 2014 or so onwards,
Tata Motors, in the form of Jaguar and Land Rover will add its name to that
list. It will be interesting to see just what unique character or ‘JLR-ness’ it
adds to those Hotfire engines.
