JLR commemorates Land Rover’s most successful model
JAGUAR Land Rover is marking the fifth anniversary of the marque’s most successful ever model.
The Range Rover Evoque, for which Victoria Beckham was an original design consultant, has sold more than half a million models since its launch in 2011, with models exported more than 180 countries.
Manufactured at the Halewood plant on Merseyside, the car is Land Rover’s greatest sales success story. It is also Land Rover’s most efficient model, thanks to its Wolverhampton-built Ingenium engines, which offer class-leading CO2 emissions of just 109g/km and fuel consumption of 68mpg.
Since the first Evoque rolled off the production line on July 4, 2011, sales have increased five-fold from just over 22,000 in 2011 to more than 108,000 in 2015 – with a new Evoque now rolling off the production line every 170 seconds. At the same time, the workforce has also trebled to more than 4,000, with 1,500 recruited specifically to support the launch of this record-breaking vehicle in 2011.
Over the past five years, employees have clocked up more than three million night-shift hours, consuming 668,000 cups of coffee, half a million eggs and 125,000 slices of toast to keep energy levels up during an eight-hour shift. A total of 1.7 billion Evoque parts have been fitted in the Trim and Final assembly area, travelling over 2.5 million miles of conveyor system.
Jaguar Land Rover associate Ash Milburn joined Halewood shortly after the launch of the Evoque.
He said: “I started as an apprentice at a very exciting time for the company. The Range Rover Evoque has been hugely successful; it has brought a lot of positive changes to Halewood and has contributed immensely to the success of Jaguar Land Rover, as well as boosting the whole UK automotive industry.”
Earlier this year, Halewood began building a new convertible version of the car. The soft-top is the world’s first luxury SUV convertible and another first for Land Rover.
Richard Else, Jaguar Land Rover Halewood Operations Director, said: “During my 25 years at Jaguar Land Rover it has been the last five years that have been the most eventful, exciting and rewarding. The impact which Evoque has made to our business and to Halewood is nothing short of transformational. I am immensely proud of the Halewood team; their pride, passion and commitment to getting the job done and going above and beyond is second to none.”
JLR has invested £600m at the Halewood plant since 2010 to support production of the Evoque plus the Land Rover Discovery Sport (2014) and the Evoque Convertible (2016).
The Evoque is also the fastest selling Land Rover of all time, accounting for one in four Land Rovers sold around the world in 2015. Local production also started in China in 2015, and more recently, announced in Brazil.
