Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia Factory: OFFICIAL

Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it is building a new factory in Nitra, Slovakia, which will open by 2018 and eventually build 300,000 cars a year.

Back in August, Jaguar Land Rover signed a letter of intent to build a new production facility in Slovakia, and today JLR has confirmed the deal is completed and JLR will become the first British car maker to build cars in Slovakia.

Although building Jaguars and Land Rovers in Slovakia is a first for a UK car maker, Slovakia is hardly virgin territory for world car makers; over one million cars a year are built in Slovakia by companies like Peugeot, Citroen, Kia and Volkswagen, and the mature supply chain that’s resulted clearly influenced JLR’s decision.

The £1 billion investment in Slovakia will yield a new manufacturing facility that will employ 2,800, with construction staring in 2016 and the first cars coming off the production line by the end of 2018.

Production capacity will initially be 150,000 cars a year, but JLR expect it to grow to 300,000 a year, adding to JLR’s production facilities in the UK, China, India and Brazil.

Ralf Speth, JLR CEO, said:

Slovakia has an established premium automotive sector, which represents 43% of the country’s overall industry. It has more than 300 suppliers in close proximity and an excellent logistics infrastructure; this confirmed our decision that this country was the ideal location.

The heart of our company will always be in the UK, where our design, technology and manufacturing capabilities are based. It is our creativity and innovation which makes Jaguar Land Rover the leading boutique automotive brand, offering exceptional products for our customers.

JLR are at pains to point out that overseas production expansion is not at the cost of UK jobs and investment, and remind us that in the last five years JLR has employed over 20,000 new workers – taking it to 37,000 –  and invested more than £11 billion in the UK.