Jaguar Land Rover opens its first overseas manufacturing unit

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in China - its first outside the United Kingdom. The company has collaborated with Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile Company Ltd. to manufacture the Range Rover Evoque at the new plant. Inaugural sales of the China-made Range Rover Evoque are due to begin in early 2015.

Located in Changshu Economic Development Zone north of Shanghai, the new plant has an area of almost 400,000 square metres and is a part a RMB 10.9 billion joint venture investment plan. The decision to manufacture the Evoque was taken as one in every five Evoques sold was in China since the car's launch. The company is planning to build three Jaguar Land Rover models at the plant by 2016. The vehicles will be manufactured in automated press shops, including aluminium and steel technologies along with a steel body shop comprising 306 robots, an energy-efficient paint shop and an ergonomically-friendly final assembly line.  A new aluminium body shop, is already under construction, at the Changshu facility. 130,000 units are expected to be rolled out every year from the plant.

The company will also make investment in training more than 2,000 people in health and safety standards, process systems and problem-solving, as well as the company's quality-control processes and corporate culture.

Additional Jaguar Land Rover activities in China include:

• Three training academies - Shanghai, Beijing & Guangzhou
• Five parts distribution centres (Chongqing, Suzhou (2), Beijing & Guangzhou)
• 161 operational dealers (247 appointed dealers)
• Three Land Rover Experience Centres

In addition to China, Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed plans to create a local manufacturing facility in Brazil and has a local assembly facility in Pune, India.