New Jag is all set for its launch
Production of a new Jaguar has started in the home of Land Rover with the introduction of the new XE sports saloon at the famous 4x4 factory in the Midlands.
It is a huge boost for British industry and has created many jobs.
Parent company JLR has invested more than £1 billion in the Lode Lane plant in Solihull where the new XE will be built only yards away from the line where the first Land Rovers were produced almost 70 years ago.
It is the first time the two brands have come together to build vehicles in the same factory.
Designed by Scot Ian Callum and his talented team, the lightweight allaluminium XE will be arriving in the summer priced from £26,995 and will see Jaguar going head to head with the German giants BMW, Audi and Mercedes in the executive market.
The new Jaguar will be made in Europe’s largest aluminium body shop which, at 85,000 square meters, is the size of 12 football pitches.
The facility has been built at the Solihull factory specifically to accommodate the latest phase in JLR’s development of aluminium in its cars first seen on the new Range Rover three years ago.
Some £500 million has been spent on the XE project which has already created an extra 2,200 jobs taking the Lode Lane workforce up to 9,000 - double that of five years ago.
The ‘factory within a factory’ at Solihull was officially opened by motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss on a day of celebration for the Jaguar Land Rover staff who took a break from production to line the roads through the plant as a cavalcade of priceless historic vehicles