Jaguar to produce I-PACE from 2018

Jaguar will put its I-PACE electric car into production in 2018. Described as the start of a new era for Jaguar, the company is launching the car at this month’s Los Angeles auto show.

Next Jaguar XE reinforces ally ‘road map’

The message in Jaguar’s ‘Road Map’ always claimed that the XE saloon could be built at the firm’s Land Rover plant in Solihull or Jaguar’s ‘home plant’ of Castle Bromwich. In the event, Solihull became the XE’s first port of call but with the option production could be moved to Castle Bromwich should the need arise.

Convertible extends Ingenium applications

Land Rover has unveiled the world’s first luxury compact SUV convertible.

Jaguar F-PACE: More business for vendors

Jaguar’s F-PACE performance crossover for with its lightweight aluminium architecture provides further business for suppliers of major technology and component suppliers.

JLR to open 300,000/y car plant on Slovakia

JaguarLandRover (JLR) is to build a new manufacturing plant in the city of Nitra in western Slovakia to build aluminium-intensive vehicles from 2018 onwards.

Ford F-150 gets NHTSA 5-star rating

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has awarded Ford’s 2015 F-150 SuperCrew (pictured below) its five-star Overall Vehicle Score in its New Car Assessment Program, the highest possible rating.

ABB stakes robot claim in XE facility

Swedish robot maker and systems supplier ABB Robotics of Milton Keynes is the principal supplier of robots to the new Jaguar ‘plant within a plant’ at JaguarLandRover’s (JLR) Solihull facility.

JLR confirms its commitment to the UK

JaguarLandRover has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to the UK’s West Midlands, with confirmation of a £600 million investment in the region to support product creation and advanced vehicle manufacturing.

Atlas Copco swallows Henrob of SPR fame

 Atlas Copco has now acquired the shareholding of self-piercing rivet (SPR) specialists Henrob Ltd of Flint in the UK.

Ubisense wins another Smart order

Ubisense plc of Cambridge, UK, a market leader in real time location intelligence solutions, has announced that a ‘large European automotive manufacturer’ has deployed its Smart Factory System to another of its production lines.

Ubisense declines to name the customer but it acknowledges that Aston Martin, BMW, Cummins and Fiat are key amongst its customer base. On the basis of this the new order could be from BMW.

The order, valued at approximately €700,000 is part of a global framework agreement with the manufacturer that covers more than 100 sites and this represents the fourth installation since production acceptance was granted in July this year.

Ubisense wins Mercedes S-Class job

Following extensive proof-of-concept at the Daimler plant in Rastatt, Ubisense has been was awarded a contract to equip the Mercedes S-Class premium car assembly line in the Sindelfingen plant.

The project was divided into two phases: the pilot phase covered two-line segments and the associated DC tools provided the means to integrate and test the solution; the system will now be installed at the remaining stations and all the DC tools will be integrated.

The Ubisense Smart Factory System automates the process of matching a particular tool with a vehicle on the production line, eliminating the need for the operator to scan vehicle bar code ID numbers. In this way, the system ensures that the correct tool program is being used for the particular vehicle at the station.

In addition, the exact location of each vehicle is tracked continuously and matched to the vehicle ID which is then supplied to external worker assistance systems as the vehicle arrives at each station. This is particularly useful on line segments where traditional vehicle sensing technologies are not available.