Jaguar Land Rover to Produce Highly Efficient Engines in Staffordshire

After an 18-month tendering process, the i54 development site in Staffordshire has won the bid for Jaguar Land Rover’s new £355m advanced technology low emission engine plant.

The plant will be on the 220 acre business park, part of the newly created Enterprise Zones, and will join companies like Moog, Goodrich Actuation Systems, HS Marston Aerospace, and Tinken UK.

The new Jaguar Land Rover site will cover 130,000 sq m and incorporate two linked buildings consisting of a machining hall, assembly hall and ancillary offices. The construction of a new £36.7million Council-funded slip road from the M54 motorway to the site is also part of the deal and ready to commence.

"As part of our long-term strategy for the JLR business, we will design, engineer and manufacture a new family of advanced engines,” said Dr Ralf Speth, Chief Executive Officer at Jaguar Land Rover. “This is a major commitment for our company and we will produce these advanced, highly-efficient engines for future Jaguar and Land Rover models at a new facility in the UK.”
JLR will invest £1.5 billion annually on new product developments for the next five years, expanding their engine range and further exploiting the global potential of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. “The all-new family of 4 cylinder engines will increase JLR's capability to offer high performance engines with class-leading levels of refinement, whilst ensuring continued significant reductions in vehicle emissions," added Dr Speth.

In addition to the site being a boost to the UK manufacturing industry, it will also create nearly 1,000 jobs. Councillor Ben Adams, cabinet member for economic growth and enterprise, said, “One of the key components of our offer as a destination for Jaguar Land Rover was the graduate workforce from our universities in Staffordshire and the wider region.”

Mike Wright, Executive Director at JLR, added, "I would like to pay tribute to the strong support we have received for this project from our key partners. The constructive and collaborative support we have received from the Government, our trade union colleagues, Local Authorities, local MPs, and of course our employees, has been crucial in enabling us to reach this very significant decision."