LONDON: Although Jaguar Land Rover is the quintessential British luxury vehicle manufacturer, it could be said it's getting a little less British all the time. After all, it's been owned by the huge Indian Tata corporation for a decade or so, and that's after being sold by US automaker Ford.

The most important markets for its vehicles are also outside Britain, so it should come as no surprise that the company is expanding its manufacturing base beyond its traditional roots in Britain

Already having facilities in Brazil, China and Slovakia, and rumoured to be looking for a suitable site in the southern United States, JLR has now opened its first overseas engine plant in Changshu, China.




JLR, which is currently Britain's biggest carmaker and already has a stake in a manufacturing facility in China as part of a partnership with Chery, says the new facility that opened last Friday was part of a 10.9 billion yuan (RM6.9bil) investment with the Chinese vehicle manufacturer.

In an official statement, JLR stated: "The new engine plant demonstrates Jaguar Land Rover's long-term commitment to the Chinese market, providing customers with an exciting range of vehicles and powertrain options, as well as to its joint venture."

The site is initially going to be producing the company's latest Ingenium 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. And it's hard to argue with the logic behind the move as China was the automaker's fastest growing market last year, accounting for a massive 20 percent of its entire worldwide sales.



Jaguar Land Rover's existing facility in Changshu opened just under three years ago now. It currently builds the Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover Discovery Sport and a long wheelbase Jaguar XFL, and the eagerly anticipated Jaguar E-Pace compact crossover will also be added to the roster in the coming year.

Production levels and the model line-up are expanding at a rapid pace to meet strong demand around the world, which is why the decision was taken in 2015 to build a major new plant in Slovakia, instead of expanding operations in Britain further. It was also announced earlier this month that the new Jaguar E-Pace would be built at Magna Steyr in Austria as well as in China, which will make the E-Pace the first Jaguar model for global sale to be built outside of Britain.

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