Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to double the size of its Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC).
It comes as part of a £450m expansion programme, meaning total investment in the Wolverhampton site, which opened a year ago, now stands at £1bn. The announcement will lead to the creation of 'several hundred' new jobs which will see JLR's global workforce hit 40,000 by 2016.
The EMC is home to the Ingenium engine - Jaguar Land Rover's first venture into in-house engine manufacturing in a generation. In twelve months, the Midland based facility has moved from prototype production to full-scale manufacture with more than 50,000 engines coming off the production line.
The Ingenium engine launched initially in the Jaguar XE in April 2015 and was followed by the Discovery Sport, two of the most significant product launches from the British manufacturer accounting for sales of 65,800 in the year so far. Today the EMC has cemented its position as the heart of Jaguar Land Rover's UK manufacturing operations supplying all three vehicle plants with engines which also power the Range Rover Evoque, all-new Jaguar XF and soon to be launched Jaguar F-Pace.
This latest phase in the development of the EMC will see the site increase its operational footprint to 200,000 square metres, supporting capacity uplift as the company continues on its product offensive 'to deliver more exciting new products to customers'.
Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Dr. Ralf Speth said: "We are proud to be such a significant investor in advanced manufacturing in Britain and are excited by this expansion and the new jobs it will create. The Engine Manufacturing Centre is a strategically significant facility for Jaguar Land Rover. The decision to expand our operations at the site provides a clear signal of our commitment to meeting customer demand for cleaner and more efficient engines, whilst developing the skills and capability that Britain needs if it is to remain globally competitive."
The Engine Manufacturing Centre is one of Jaguar Land Rover's four UK based manufacturing facilities. Together with its R&D centres in Coventry and Gaydon, Jaguar Land Rover has invested £11bn in product creation and facilities, creating more than 20,000 new jobs in the last five years.