Barbara Bergmeier, Executive Director of Industrial Operations at Jaguar Land Rover, confirms that electric vehicles will be produced in Nitra by the end of the decade. The plant will be reconfigured for electrification, as part of JLR’s £15 billion transformation investment
The news comes following the news on the opening of JLR’s new Future Energy Lab from 250 million pounds to Whitley, in the United Kingdom, to develop EDUs (Electric Drive Units) and to support the transformation of the Halewood and Solihull plants where the next generation electric models.
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed that its state-of-the-art plant in Nitra, Slovakia, as part of its Reimagine strategy, will produce electric vehicles and will launch nine new electric vehicles by 2030.
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Slovakian plant, Barbara Bergmeier, JLR Executive and Director of Industrial Operations, was keen to recall the incredible success of the plant and its staff, who have produced to date over 365.000 Defender e Discoveryfrom the start of production in October 2018.
I am thrilled to announce that our state-of-the-art factory in Nitra will produce electric vehicles this decade as part of our electrification strategy. This is a vote of confidence in the plant’s 5,000 skilled and dedicated people and demonstrates Nitra’s significant role in the success of our current performance. I also want to thank our suppliers who followed us to Nitra and supported our production increases.
Barbara Bergmeier, JLR Executive and Director of Industrial Operations
Today this achievement represents a real milestone for our plant, which has gone from strength to strength since the lines started working five years ago. We made changes, such as adding the Defender 130 and moving from two to three shifts while increasing production from 2,000 to 3,000 cars per week. The news that we will produce electric vehicles is confirmation of our key role in the Reimagine strategy.
Guillermo Mancholas, JLR Nitra Operations Director
Nitra plant: new technologies for production
JLR invested 1.3 billion euros to launch Nitra, a highly digitalized and automated system, pioneer in Europe of Kuka’s Pulse carrier system, with transfer times 30% faster than traditional systems. Since then, the prestige car manufacturing group has invested another 60 million euros in new technologies, land, buildings and software.
The new Defender, produced exclusively in Nitra, has proven to be a very financially successful model for the company. As best-selling model of JLR over the last two years, is in fact increasing Classic Defender revenue tenfold in 2015.
Jaguar Land Rover: an all-electric future
JLR is making investments for £15 billion in five years to transform its vehicles to electric and reach zero carbon emissions by 2039.
This includes plans to make its Range Rover, Defender, Jaguar and Discovery brands electric and the launch of nine electric models by the year 2030. The company is proceeding very quickly to electrify its range and Nitra represents the last part of the project. Halewood will be JLR’s first fully electric manufacturing plant, Solihull will produce electric Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Jaguar models, the Wolverhampton Engine Manufacturing Center will build EDUs, (Electric Drive Units) and Castle Bromwich will be used to build body panels .
Meanwhile, JLR has opened a nuovo Future Energy Lab £250 million in Whitley, Coventry, UK, to develop Electric Drive Units (EDUs) in-house for the company.
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