Jaguar Land Rover sign production deal with Magna Steyr. Does this mean ‘Niche’ models?

Jaguar Land Rover has signed a deal with Austrian car builder Magna Steyr as JLR’s UK production plants come close to their maximum capacity.

Despite huge investment in production in the UK in recent years, Jaguar Land Rover is rapidly heading towards full capacity in the UK. So it’s signed a deal with specialist car builder Magna Steyr for extra car building capacity.

But what will Magna Steyr build for Jaguar Land Rover.

One possibility is a new ‘Baby’ F-Pace Crossover – dubbed the Jaguar E-Pace – that will sit below the F-Pace and be the next instalment in Jaguar’s SUV drive, which could also see an XJ-sized SUV – based on the Range Rover – arriving eventually too.

But we’d expect any smaller SUV from Jaguar to be a big seller, and although Magna Steyr has exceptional manufacturing facilities in Austria, we’re not sure a big-selling model would be produced there.

At the moment, Magna Steyr build mainly ‘niche’ cars – the Mercedes G-Class, Peugeot RCZ, MINI Paceman and Countryman – so we wonder if Jaguar, in particular, are now looking to Magna Steyr to build the more niche models they need?

Could that mean we will finally get a Jaguar XF Coupe and Convertible, perhaps a Jaguar XJ coupe too, and the same for the new XE? That seems to make more sense.

JLR already has SVO for its extreme performance and luxury models – like the Range Rover Sport SVR and Range Rover SVAutobiography – so that seems to be a non-starter for Magna Steyr, but different body styles of the current range could well be the plan.

Or we could be completely wrong, and Magna Steyr will build the Jaguar E-Pace.