Jaguar Land Rover is powering ahead
Jaguar Land Rover's new engine plant on the outskirts of Wolverhampton is playing an increasingly vital role in one of Britain's biggest success stories.
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The Engine Manufacturing Centre, alongside the M54, produces JLR's Ingenium diesel engine, already powering its new XE executive car and now to bring unprecedented levels of fuel economy and lower emissions in the Discovery Sport, Range Rover Evoque and a new generation of XF saloons.
The 2.0 litre unit will also be at the heart of the new Jaguar F-Pace and the new Evoque Convertible, both to be launched in the spring, and the replacement for the Land Rover Defender.
In each case, the highly advanced new diesel turbo replaces an older 'bought in' engine, saving owners money at the pumps and in both road tax and potentially thousands of pounds in benefit in kind tax.
In the big XF, the Ingenium engine is 19 per cent more efficient bringing CO2 emissions in some versions to as low as 104g/km – compared to 129g/km in the previous car.
For the Evoque, owners can boast of new 'green' credentials with economy of up to 68mpg and emissions down to as little as 109g/km, more supermini territory than luxury SUV.
The statistics for the Discovery Sport with the 180PS Ingenium engine are 53.3mpg and 129g/km compared to 46.3mpg and 162g/km for the first versions of the car, launched a year ago.
It isn't just about JLR meeting new, even tighter emissions regulations. The new Ingenium-powered XF, Discovery Sport and Evoque are not just environmentally cleaner, they're showing their main competitors from the big three German premium car makers a clean pair of heels when it comes to whole life costs. That is good news for Britain and for jobs in the West Midlands.
The Wolverhampton plant represents JLR's first venture into building its own engines, and already more than 50,000 Ingenium units have been produced by the 700 existing employees.
The company recently announced it was doubling the production area, to build its own petrol engines too, and taking on hundreds of new workers, bringing its total investment at the site to £1 billion.
The Ingenium engine was first fitted to the new Jaguar XE in April, and also powered a prototype F-Pace in its spectacular, world record 'loop the loop' when it was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It has been fitted in the Discovery Sport since September, and together these two models have found more 65,000 buyers this year,
The company's chief executive Dr Ralf Speth said: "The Engine Manufacturing Centre is a strategically significant facility for Jaguar Land Rover.
"The decision to expand our operations at the site provides a clear signal of our commitment to meeting customer demand for cleaner and more efficient engines whilst developing the skills and capability that Britain needs if it is to remain globally competitive."
The first people to be recruited at the Wolverhampton plant in 2011 were a group of apprentices who have just graduated from the company's award-winning training scheme.
By the time the second stage of the development is complete,.Jaguar Land Rover will employ in excess of 40,000 people worldwide, the majority of them at its four British manufacturng centres.
