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.

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.

Rogers heads up JLR’s global engineering

Nick Rogers takes over as engineering director at JaguarLandRover (JLR) from 1 April.

Nissan makes most UK vehicles

Nissan’s Sunderland plant made the most cars in the UK last year.

Henrob scores with F-Pace crossover Jaguar

More of Henrob’s self-piercing rivet technology will be used on the new aluminium-intensive Jaguar F-Pace crossover that JaguarLandRover (JLR) will add to its product portfolio.

The Prof. who teamed JLR with Tata

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, who has created a business out of education and industrial R&D, was the “kingpin” in the deal to persuade Indian carmaker Tata to purchase JaguarLandRover from Ford, according to a magazine just published.

Pay-back time arrives for JaguarLandRover

Jaguar-branded vehicles are expected to double in production with the arrival of the XE sports saloon from the 77,000 level achieved in 2013. But just when this happens remains to be seen.

Certainly, the arrival of the make-or-break car, on which so much has been invested, is expected to help the company edge past the 500,000-mark for this year.

JLR half-year sales rise 14%

JaguarLandRover (JLR) has delivered its strongest half year sales performance, retailing 240,372 vehicles, up 14 per cent against the same period last year. 

The company delivered more vehicles in the past six months than in the whole of 2010.  In the month of June, Jaguar Land Rover retailed 39,594 vehicles, 17 per cent up year-on-year.

Land Rover expands V6 diesel use

New uses continue to be found for the Ford V6 diesel engine built at Dagenham, UK, the latest being the Range Rover Hybrid Long Wheelbase unit launched at the Beijing motor show. 

Together with the Range Rover Sport Hybrid, this will be the first diesel hybrid model from any manufacturer to be offered in China.

. . . As JLR invests £45m in Aida press line

JaguarLandRover (JLR) has invested £45million in a new state-of-the-art Japanese Aida servo press line at its Halewood Operations, near Liverpool.

The new servo stamping line, the first of its kind to be built in the UK, is 13m tall and over 85m long. It has a combined press stamping capacity of 7,900 tonnes, making it the fastest and one of the biggest and most powerful press lines across JLR, stamping both steel and aluminum panels.

Hotfire Job 1 set for January 2015

The first Hotfire engine from JaguarLandRover’s (JLR’s) state-of-the-art engine manufacturing plant at the i54 technology park near Wolverhampton is to roll off the line in January 2015.

Thus begins a new chapter in engine manufacture in the company. JLR has not produced an engine since manufactured stopped at Brown’s Lane Coventry and Solihull in the West Midlands over a decade ago.

Solihull revs up for 2015 aluminium Jaguar

 This year, JaguarLandRover’s UK Solihull manufacturing site will be the scene of much activity as advances are introduced in the aluminium process of building body-in-white (BIW).

Up until now, JLR’s two main centres of excellence for aluminium vehicle BIW manufacture have centred primarily on the company’s Castle Bromwich site and Solihull. Castle Bromwich, in particular, has seen a previously substantial investment (by Ford Motor Company) in equipment to stamp and handle aluminium body panels, primarily using a line of Schuler presses, provided the bedrock for the technology.

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.

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.

£1bn China boost for JaguarLandRover

JAGUARLANDROVER (JLR) has clinched a deal with Chery Automobile to build a new vehicle manufacturing plant near Shanghai, due to open in 2015.

Significantly, the vehicle manufacturing facility at Changshu will be alongside a state-of-the-art research and development facility and a new engine plant that could be modelled on the new engine plant now in the initial stages of construction in Wolverhampton, UK to produce the ‘Hotfire’ engine range.

Chery Automobile is China’s sixth largest car manufacturer but the country’s largest exporter.  Last year it sold 650,000 units. Total car sales in China last year was 18.5 million.

JLR is owned by TATA Motors which has revealed plans for a £10 billion expansion plan over the next five years; the link with Chery is part of that expansion plan. JLR has said that the output from the plant, which in the first phase is set to make 130,000 units a year, will be in addition to existing output – and not a replacement for any UK production unit. It is understood that 60 per cent of the plant’s output will be Land-Rover-badged vehicles.