First petrol engines produced at Jaguar Land Rover’s i54 factory
Jaguar Land Rover has commenced production of petrol engines at its £1bn Engine Manufacturing Centre near Wolverhampton.
Until now, the EMC, based at the i54 business park, has been producing only diesel units.
The first petrol engines will debut in JLR vehicles later in the summer.
The inaugural petrol engines mark the completion of the first phase of the EMC; a fully flexible, state-of-the-art manufacturing plant that now serves JLR’s three UK vehicle plants.
Production of the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol Ingenium engine, adds to its line-up, which also includes the ultra-low emission 2.0-litre 150PS, 163PS and 240PS four-cylinder diesel engines.
The milestone follows an announcement last week that the EMC would manufacture the high-performance 2.0-litre 300PS Ingenium petrol engine – the most powerful four-cylinder engine JLR has ever produced and which will be fitted in the 2018 model Jaguar F-TYype sports car.
Trevor Leeks, EMC Operations Director, said: “The start of petrol production marks an important milestone for the plant as we move to providing a suite of ultra-low emission, high-performance petrol and diesel engines to power the full Jaguar and Land Rover vehicle line-up now and in the future.
“Importantly, it also showcases the incredible impact Jaguar Land Rover has had on the local economy with the creation of the 1,400 skilled jobs promised when we opened the plant in 2013. In fact we will be welcoming our 1,400th employee at the end of this month.”
The start of petrol engine production reaffirms JLR’s strategic investment programme to build skills and capability in the UK. Of the 1,400 people recruited at the plant, more than 80% live within 10 miles of the Wolverhampton plant.
More than 125,000 hours of training has been undertaken to create a world-class workforce, which includes a former bus driver, a nurse, a beauty therapist and a locksmith.
