Jaguar Land Rover expansion will drive Motor City growth

TWO major investments in the automotive industry by Jaguar Land Rover will create world class manufacturing facilities for Coventry, it has been claimed.

The first scheme is the massive expansion of JLR’s administrative and research operation in Whitley.

The scheme will see the company develop half of a 60-acre site close to Coventry Airport, known as Gateway North. The remaining half of the site could be a base for top tier suppliers.

The investment, which could be around £0.5bn, will mean hundreds more jobs for the city and it will reinforce Coventry’s heritage as the UK’s Motor City.

There have been projections that the scheme could provide a £200m injection into the local economy every year.

The University of Warwick said around 5,600 people were currently employed at the Whitley site and the plans could see this increase by an additional 2,000. In addition, the scheme is likely to generate around 500 construction jobs over the next five years as it is accompanied by a major infrastructure development programme.

The scheme (below) is also complementary of the new £150m National Automotive Innovation Centre, which is being developed at the University of Warwick.  

The university said the infrastructure and focus on advanced manufacturing was putting Coventry, and the wider sub-region, at the forefront of the national automotive industry.

The layout of the Whitley expansionDr Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Working in partnership with government, council, WMG and the University of Warwick, we have developed a future-oriented vision of modern mobility for Coventry. Their passionate commitment and belief in a common vision for Coventry has underpinned the creation of our strategy to invest further in the local region.”

In 2017, JLR will move parts of its early stage R&D to the NAIC, which is a collaboration between the carmaker, Tata Motors European Technical Centre, WMG and the University of Warwick. The centre is the biggest private investment on a university campus.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, chair of WMG, said: “I believe that we are on the way to Coventry becoming a SMART Motor City.  With the developments at Jaguar Land Rover, Coventry is again leading the way in engineering and advanced manufacturing – just as it has done before.”

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