Jaguar Land Rover keeps Britain as its top priority

Jaguar Land Rover plans to increase its investment to £150m in its new engine plant in the West Midlands, taking the total to more than £500m. The luxury carmaker has even vowed to create 700 jobs at the plant which raises the toll of employment at the site to 1,400. Jaguar Land Rover chief executive Ralf Speth has confirmed that the investment and hiring will take place at the company’s engine factory in Wolverhampton.

The new plant will make engines of “up to four cylinders” and will play significant part in reducing Jaguar Land Rover’s dependency on the Ford-sourced engines which it uses today. The news of job creations and investment comes just two months after Jaguar Land Rover announced it would create an extra 800 jobs at its Solihull plant. Last year, JLR had actually announced 1,100 jobs at the new engine plant in West Midlands.

The increase in investment is the effect of rise in capital spending in Jaguar Land Rover’s production facilities. The new engine plant is scheduled to open later this year. The first engines are scheduled to come off the production line in 2015. Jaguar Land Rover is also spending £2.75bn to help support products like the Jaguar F-Type and a nine-speed gearbox Land Rover. Jaguar Land Rover said that this investment is aimed to “support the launch of eight new or refreshed models during 2013″.

Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s Tata Motors, has ridden a rise in demand for its luxury saloons and SUVs over the past two years, notably in China and other emerging markets, bucking the trend of plant shutdowns and falling production at many European carmakers. Despite its overseas expansion, Jaguar Land Rover has continually stressed its dedication to its plants in Britain, where it says it is the country’s largest automotive investor in research and development.