The Queen officially opens Jaguar Land Rover’s new £500m Engine Manufacturing Centre

JAGUAR Land Rover has officially commemorated the opening of its new £500m engine manufacturing plant near Wolverhampton at a ceremony by HM The Queen.

The new factory, on the i54 site straddling Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire, will be the home of the new Ingenium engine, the first in-house produced power plant by JLR in a generation.

The plant, which will eventually employ 1,400 people, marks a significant step forward for the business as it reduces its reliance on outside suppliers.

The new 2.0-litre, four cylinder engines which will begin rolling off the production lines next year are initially destined for the Jaguar XE, the company’s entry-level executive model and the one it hopes will go on to rival the market-leading BMW 3 Series.

Picture Gallery: Inside JLR’s new £500m Engine Manufacturing Centre

For the development of the new engine, JLR has drawn on the expertise of 2,000 of its powertrain engineers.

Once it is running to full capacity, the 100,000m² factory (which is the size of 14 football pitches) will see a new engine produced every 36 seconds with the factory operating an around-the-clock operation, six days a week. This statistic gives some indication of the volumes expected for the new XE model.

Commenting on the plant’s opening, JLR CEO Dr Ralf Speth said: “The Engine Manufacturing Centre represents all that is great about British engineering.

“Jaguar Land Rover is a business driven by design, technology and innovation and this investment and level of job creation is yet further evidence of our commitment to advancing the capability of the UK automotive sector and its supply chain.”

Awarded a rating of ‘excellent’ by BREEAM, for sustainable buildings, the facility is home to the largest rooftop solar panel installation in the UK, comprising around 21,000 individual panels. It is estimated that these panels will generate more than 30% of the plant’s energy requirements – providing the same amount of energy required to power 1,600 homes.

Commenting on the importance of the new centre, Trevor Leeks, Operations Director at the site said: “I am proud to be leading the world-class team who will bring years of hard work to fruition as we execute the flawless launch of Jaguar Land Rover’s first in-house engines in a generation.

“Our new Engine Manufacturing Centre is an important step in advancing the competitiveness and capability of the UK automotive sector. The production of in-house engines will support the expansion of the UK supply chain providing critical mass for inward investment.”

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