Jaguar Land Rover's £1 billion i54 centre marks production of revolutionary engine
Jaguar Land Rover's £1 billion Engine Manufacturing Centre has celebrated production of its first Ingenium petrol engine, which will debut in vehicles later in the summer.
The inaugural petrol engines mark the completion of the first phase of the centre (EMC) – a fully flexible, state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at the i54 to the north of Wolverhampton, that now serves JLR's three UK vehicle plants.
It has been hailed as the most significant new automotive manufacturing facility in the UK in the last decade and welcomes its 1,400th employee at the end of this month.
Production of the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol Ingenium engine, adds to its line-up, which also includes the low emission 2.0-litre 150PS, 163PS and 240PS four-cylinder diesel engines.
The news follows an announcement last week that the EMC would manufacture the high-performance 2.0-litre 300PS Ingenium petrol engine, which is the most powerful four-cylinder engine Jaguar Land Rover has ever produced, for the Jaguar F-Type.
As well as the Ingenium engines, the new Jaguars will have a series of hi-tech features as the company builds on its impressive sales performance.
Trevor Leeks, EMC operations director, said the engine's production marked a huge milestone.
He added: "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."
