New Jaguar Land Rover plant in Slovakia by 2018 planned

Jaguar Land Rover has signed a letter of intent to build a new production plant in Nitra in western Slovakia, with a capacity of 300,000 cars. Production to start in 2018.

Jaguar Land Rover are aiming to build one million cars a year, and that means finding more places to build their cars beyond their core manufacturing in the UK. And the next new JLR production plant looks set to be in Nitra in western Slovakia, as JLR sign a letter of intent with the Government of the Slovak Republic to build a new plant.

JLR’s decision to open production in Slovakia makes sense as Slovakia is already a major car producer, boasting production of one million cars a year thanks to VW’s plant in Bratislava, Peugeot Citroen’s production in Trnava and Kia’s in Zilini, and a strong supply chain and logistics infrastructure too.

Dr Ralf Speth, JLR CEO, said:

The expansion of our business globally is essential to support its long-term, resilient growth. As well as creating additional capacity, it allows us to invest in the development of more new vehicles and technologies, which supports jobs in the UK.

Assuming the new plant gets the go ahead (a final decision is due by the end of 2015) it will add an additional 300,000 cars a year to JLR’s capacity, supplementing its production in the UK, China, India and Brazil.