The British carmaker has finally decided to head for Slovakia to expand production of its aluminium-bodied models
After months of hesitation, Jaguar Land Rover announced today that it has eventually chosen Slovakia over Poland as the location of its new production plant. In an official press release, the Midland carmaker confirms the signing a Letter of Intent with the Government of the Slovak Republic. The company highlights that the move marks the next step in its strategy to become a more competitive global business by expanding its manufacturing operations into new international locations in the future. The brand, owned by India’s since 2008, produced about 450,000 vehicles last year, but plans to expand to one million.
“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,” says Dr Ralf Speth, Chief Executive Officer, Jaguar Land Rover “With its established premium automotive industry, Slovakia is an attractive potential development opportunity for us. The new factory will complement our existing facilities in the UK, China, India and the one under construction in Brazil.”
This is bad news for Poland, who was reportedly tempting Jaguar with huge incentives to attract a planned Central European factory. As we all can see now, without success. “The biggest investment in the car manufacturing industry in Poland” was planned to be built in Krakow at a cost of about GBP 1.2 bn.
“Poland had an advantage in that industrial labor costs an average of under €8.50 an hour, against over €10 in Slovakia, but Slovakia uses the euro, thus eliminating currency risk for selling into eurozone countries,” said Prof Bailey, adding that the Poland’s competitor already has a premium automotive sector, 320 auto supply chain firms, a highly skilled workforce, and good logistic infrastructure.
Through the details of Slovakian plant are still unconfirmed, the car maker is presently working with the native authorities to evaluate its feasibility following robust analysis of a number of locations including Europe, the United States and Mexico.
Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia, stated that as part of Jaguar Land Rover’s commitment to deliver more lightweight vehicles, the plant would manufacture a range of aluminium Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. It is anticipated that the first cars will come off the production line in 2018.
Emma is a telecom engineer, fond of fantasy books and RPGs
