Jaguar XE production starts – at the home of Land Rover

Production of the new Jaguar XE has started at the new £500 million factory within a factory at Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihill plant – the traditional home of Land Rover.

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It’s actually seven months since the new Jaguar XE was revealed, six months since we knew XE prices and specs and a month since we learnt Jaguar was offering five year service plans for the XE at sensible prices.

Which has all been very interesting, but all pretty pointless unless Jaguar actually get on with building the XE. Fortunately, production of the XE starts today.

Interestingly, it doesn’t start at Castle Bromwich – Jaguar’s traditional home – but at Solihull, the home of Land Rover, where JLR has built a £500 million factory in a factory for the new XE – the culmination of some £2 billion of investment – and created a £4 billion supply chain opportunity in the process.

JLR’s Solihull Operations Director, Alan Volkaerts, said:

This really is an incredibly special day for Jaguar Land Rover and the team here at Solihull, many of whom have witnessed the plant change beyond all recognition in recent time. The arrival of the new Jaguar XE marks a new chapter in the history of this plant and showcases the flexibility of our manufacturing operation thanks to a strategic investment in aluminium technologies and infrastructure.

I speak on behalf of the whole team when I say what an incredible privilege it is to be producing not one, but two of the world’s best loved motoring brands.

In fact, the arrival of XE production at Solihull is just the start of JLR’s dual brand manufacturing, with the new Jaguar F-Pace Crossover due to be built at Solihull too when it arrives, and truly blurs the lines between Jaguar and Land Rover.