UK cars up, trucks and engines down

UK car production is being driven by demand from Europe, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT).

A total of 142,158 cars were manufactured in the UK in March - a 12 per cent rise on the March 2013 figure, the SMMT noted.

For Hotfire read Ingenium

Hotfire, JaguarLandRover’s new engine range to be made in Wolverhampton, UK, and revealed at long last, is to be called Ingenium and will power the company’s new all-aluminium Jaguar XE saloon.

Speaking at the Geneva Auto Show Dr Ralf Speth, chief executive officer, JaguarLandRover, confirmed: "We announced just a few weeks ago that our new Engine Manufacturing Centre would produce a new family of premium, lightweight, low-friction, low emission four-cylinder petrol and diesel units. The first of our Ingenium engine range will be used in our all-new mid-sized Jaguar sports sedan. That car will be called the Jaguar XE, and it will be unveiled in production form later this year."

Hotfire ‘moment of truth’ draws closer

The ‘moment of truth’ is fast approaching when Jaguar will unleash its BMW 3-Series basher, the new ‘baby' Jaguar, due to break cover this summer ahead of market launch in 2015.

The launch of the new car will see the arrival too of JaguarLandRover’s (JLR’s) new Hotfire range of gasoline and diesel engines that will gradually migrate across the company’s range of products, even hybrids in due coarse.

JLR 2013 sales rise by nearly one-fifth

JaguarLandRover (JLR) boosted sales in 2013 by nearly 20 per cent to 425,006 units, its strongest ever full-year global sales performance.

JLR, the UK's leading manufacturer of premium luxury vehicles, witnessed full year retail sales up 19%, with strong growth in all major regions. The company set new records in 38 markets, including Russia, Brazil, Korea and Canada.

Regional performance for the full year was: Asia Pacific and the China region up 30%, North America up 21%, the UK up 14%, Europe up 6%, and other overseas markets up 23%.

JLR recruits for new Hotfire plant

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) today launches the first phase of its campaign to recruit 1,400 employees at its new state-of-the-art Hotfire engine manufacturing centre based at the i54 South Staffordshire business park near Wolverhampton.

This phase will see the creation of in the region of 600 manufacturing roles at the plant in the next four years.

Ricardo to power McLaren to 2020

Ricardo plc of Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, has won a contract to supply engines for its supercars in a contract worth £40 million a year.

The deal will allow Ricardo to continue building the engines for the P1 and the 12C spider as well as the McLaren GT.

Mike Flewitt, chief executive of McLaren Automotive said “Ricardo is a leading name in the development and assembly of world-beating engines, pushing the boundaries of performance and efficiency, and sharing the core values and objectives of McLaren.”

Hotfire gets a boost from Ricardo

Ricardo’s Syner-D programme gives a pointer to how JaguarLandRover’s next-generation Hotfire engine could progress towards meeting Euro 6 emissions requirements and CO2 reductions of over 30 per cent.

The Syner-D project, partly funded by the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, had as its main aim: to deliver a premium vehicle demonstration vehicle offering a CO2 reduction of 30 per cent, Euro 6 tailpipe emissions and suffering no compromise in transient variability and overall performance.

The three-year programme included input from JLR, Valeo, SKF, Shell and Lontra.

New blanking press feeds JLR shops

A new blanking press shop erected at JaguarLandRover’s Chester Road facility in Castle Bromwich will produce parts for future models.

The blanking process involves the making of blank panels which is the first stage of creating automotive body panels. This takes rolled coils of steel or aluminium and cuts (using a hydraulic press) outline body panel shapes ready for second pressing to create finished body panels for assembly.

This process is currently only undertaken at Halewood for JLR and the purpose of the new line is to produce panels for Castle Bromwich and Solihull. The new blanker line was required to support JLR’s projected production volumes at the site.

Centre for next-generation vehicle testing

Next year will see completion of Ricardo’s £10 million Vehicle Emissions Research Centre (VERC) the company is building in conjunction with Horiba UK.

With its new facility Ricardo will be able to offer companies such as JaguarLandRover (JLR) and other vehicle builders the capability to test new vehicles for a global market to far more extreme limits than would previously have been possible.

Ironically, Ricardo, Horiba and JLR already have a close working harmony. Horiba UK is one of JLR’s principal suppliers of emissions testing equipment with Solihull and Whitley being recent recipients of equipment; Ricardo is JLRs’ preferred supplier for bespoke powertrain assignments and Horiba UK and Ricardo are now united in this ground-breaking research facility that is expected to be compete in the second half of 2014.

Hotfire engine to power new JLR light alloy cars

Jaguar Land Rover has announced an investment approaching £1.5 billion to introduce an all-new technically-advanced aluminium vehicle architecture in forthcoming models to be powered by the Hotfire family of engines.

To support this strengthening of the Jaguar product portfolio 1,700 new jobs will be created in the UK at its advanced manufacturing facility in Solihull.  

Dr. Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover chief executive officer, announced the major strategy at the Frankfurt Motor Show to deliver an enhanced range of models for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in new segments and markets.

Jaguar readies 4x4 for Frankfurt

Jaguar can wait not a second longer to roll out a 4x4 ‘cross-over’ as it lays plans to unfurl the wraps on a new concept vehicle at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month, paving the way for production in 2016.

Jaguar has seen its competitors advance heavily into this territory and clearly wants a slice of the action.

The new arrival could pave the way for yet more diesel sales by the company but whether the new vehicle is fired by one of the Hotfire family of new engines to come from the as-yet unopened Wolverhampton engine plant (WEP) remains to be seen.

MAG wins JLR’s Hotfire engine job

Global machine tool supplier MAG IAS has won an important contract to supply machine tools and other equipment for the manufacture of JaguarLandRover’s Hotfire four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engine family at the automaker’s i54 site near Wolverhampton. There is the potential to make three-, six- and eight-cylinder versions based on 0.5-litre/cylinder modularity.

This confirms earlier reports in this newsletter that the site would be the location of what sources in the machine tool industry describe as a ‘cut and paste’ job, whereby similar arrangements and cell layouts of MAG’s machine tool equipment it has supplied previously and might found in other engine manufacturing plants around the world could be used as the basis of the new machining and other production processes in Wolverhampton.

The contract is another important benchmark for MAG which has become a major supplier of engine component manufacturing equipment to some segments of the world’s automotive industry. MAG is, for example, a premier supplier to Ford Motor Company. However, MAG seldom announces its contracts with OEMs in the automotive industry.

Challenges ahead for Stadler

When Wolfgang Stadler arrives at JaguarLandRover to begin work full time for his new employer he will find much with which to familiarise himself.

Recently, JaguarLandRover (JLR) appointed Wolfgang Stadler its new director of manufacturing. Stadler will be responsible for JLR’s global manufacturing operations and will report directly to Dr Ralf Speth, chief executive officer.

Stadler will join the company from BMW Group where he has held the position of senior vice president, BMW Plant Dingolfing. Prior to this he has held a number of senior positions at BMW Group internationally, including the post of managing director, BMW South Africa.

JLR taps BMW for manufacturing supremo

JaguarLandRover (JLR) is appointing Wolfgang Stadler as its new director of manufacturing. In this high profile role, Stadler will be responsible for JLR’s global manufacturing operations and will report directly to Dr Ralf Speth, chief executive officer.

Stadler will join the company from BMW Group where he has held the position of senior vice president, BMW Plant Dingolfing. Prior to this he has held a number of senior positions at BMW Group internationally, including being managing director, BMW South Africa.

Commenting on the new appointment, Dr Ralf Speth said: “We look forward to welcoming Wolfgang to Jaguar Land Rover. He brings a wealth of experience at this exciting time when jaguar land Rover is restructuring and going for sustainable and profitable growth simultaneously.”

Volvo Car starts new engine family

Volvo Car Group has begun production of the first engine variants in the new, high-efficiency four-cylinder engine family.

The development and production take place in-house at Volvo Car Group and form a vital part of the company's strategy for independence.

The strategy of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines and driveline electrification is the path that Volvo Cars has chosen for the future. With its ability to control the development and production of engines and drivelines and by reducing the number of engine variants, Volvo Cars claims the result is increased flexibility.

JLR boosts Middle East testing

JaguarLandRover (JLR) has enhanced its Middle East test programme by opening a new engineering test centre in Dubai, UAE, to conduct extreme hot weather vehicle research, development and testing.

With temperatures in the desert typically reaching 48 to 50°C in the summer months, the new 11,120 square feet facility in the Al Barsha area of Dubai, UAE will offer a comprehensive range of tests including durability, calibration and hot weather testing for heat and humidity.

The engineering team at the new centre, which replaces a smaller facility in Dubai, will also test powertrains, chassis and heat and ventilation systems, as well as the off-road and sand driving capability of Land Rover’s unique Terrain Response system.

The challenges posed for JLR’s Hotfire

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.

Ford timing challenges JLR Hotfire

Ford has said that it will invest £200 million to invest in four-cylinder engine production at its Brook Park, Cleveland, Ohio plant starting 2014 – the timing is similar to that of JaguarLandRover which begins production of its own four-cylinder gasoline and diesel Hotfire engines at Wolverhampton in 2014/2015.

Ford will equip an increasing number of models with smaller, more-efficient powertrains. Ford will add 450 jobs at Brook Park to build the 2-litre engines which the automaker has been building in Valencia, Spain. Valencia will continue to build these engines for Ford European-built vehicles as well as both Jaguar and Land Rover - see also recent item entitled Ricardo/JLR in I4 engine pact.

According to one US analyst, the 2-litre EcoBoost turbocharged engine is close to the power of a V6 with much better fuel economy.

Ricardo/JLR in I4 engine pact

Will Ricardo provide valuable engineering support to help JaguarLandRover (JLR) integrate its new Hotfire four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines into the car maker’s products when then engines appear in 2014/2015?

 A clue to the answer perhaps can be found in the latest issue of Ricardo’s house magazine RQ. The concluding sentence in an article describing Ricardo’s role in the integration of Land Rover’s I4 gasoline engine into the latest XF and XJ products states: ‘For Ricardo it is another box ticked and an already successful relationship is moving from strength to further strength’.

Without doubt, the joint work by engineers from JLR and Ricardo to integrate the four-cylinder gasoline engines into cars initially engineered for vee-engines is a substantial task if the same essential vehicle attributes are to be retained. That joint work no doubt will be of direct benefit in the future when JLR comes to integrate the new Hotfire I4 gasoline and diesel engines into a range of vehicles. Hotfire will be manufactured at site i54 near the M54, Wolverhampton.

Hotfire plant gathers speed

JaguarLandRover (JLR) is reinforcing its commitment to UK manufacturing by increasing the investment in its new engine manufacturing centre at site i54 in Wolverhampton to more than £500 million.  

The company will invest £2.75 billion in product creation during the year to support its ambitious growth plans that will see the business introduce eight new or refreshed products during the year.

The new engine manufacturing centre is essential to support the company's long-term strategic growth plans. As reported here it will be the home for Hotfire, a new generation of technologically advanced, lightweight four-cylinder low emission diesel and petrol engines. (See also one of our exclusive popular posts ‘Cut-and-pasteHotfire engine plant for JLR’.)