Jaguar Land Rover opens its first overseas manufacturing plant

Jaguar Land Rover has opened its first overseas manufacturing facility in China. The award-winning Range Rover Evoque will be the first model to be built in a joint venture with Chinese auto company Chery Automobile Company Ltd worth RMB 10.9 billion. This is in fact the first Chinese-British automotive joint venture.

The 400,000 square-metres plant, is located in the Changshu Economic Development Zone north of Shanghai.

They expect to build three Jaguar Land Rover models with total production capacity of 130,000 units a year by 2016 (for the Chinese market only). The facility features highly-automated press shops – including cutting-edge 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.

Some interesting information:

• Jaguar Land Rover first established a presence in China just over a decade ago.
• China is Jaguar Land Rover’s single largest market with over 100,000 vehicles sold in the last fiscal year
• 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.

Jaguar Land Rover announces £1.5 billion investment

Dr. Ralf Speth, Chief Executive Officer of Jaguar Land Rover today announced the major investment approaching £1.5 billion at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This will also include the creation of 1,700 new jobs at their Advanced Manufacturing Facility in Solihull, UK. This brings the total number of UK manufacturing jobs announced by Jaguar Land Rover over the last three years to almost 11,000. The car maker owned by Tata plans to deliver an enhanced range of models for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in new segments and markets.

The first new model to utilise the new technically-advanced aluminium vehicle architecture will be an all-new mid-sized sports sedan from Jaguar which is expected to be launched in 201. This vehicle will feature the first engine to be built at Jaguar Land Rover’s new £500m Engine Manufacturing Centre. The plant will build the new family of high-output, fuel efficient petrol and diesel engines for Jaguar Land Rover.

Jaguar Land Rover investing more in technology and innovation

In its 65th anniversary year, Jaguar Land Rover recently announced plans for further investments in technology and innovation at the Geneva International Motor Show.

This includes the introduction of 8 new or updated products this year and £2.75 billion (US$4.2 billion approx. ) investment in new product development. They are also increasing total investment to more than £500 million (approx. US$755 million) to their state-of-the-art Engine Manufacturing Center in the UK, doubling the number of jobs to 1,400.

The new model releases will include the world's first 9-speed transmission in a passenger vehicle, alongside its new all-electric Defender research vehicles. The Jaguar XFR-, which is their Jaguar's fastest and most powerful sports saloon car, also makes its eagerly awaited European debut alongside the new two-seat sports car, the Jaguar F-TYPE.

London Taxi taken over by the Chinese

Chinese car manufacturer Geely has bought LTI, makers of the legendary black London cabs, for £11.4 million. This includes  plant, equipment and property, intellectual property rights, trade marks and the "goodwill of the business" as well as Manganese Bronze Holdings (MBH) 48% stake in the joint venture manufacturing company in Shanghai set up by Geely and MBH in 2009 and MBH's stock of unsold vehicles.  MBH is the manufacturer of the cabs.

LTI which is based in Coventry went into administration in October. According to news reports, production of the TX4 cabs will still continue in their Coventry plant. They also have revealed plans to come out with new green cabs in the near future.

Jaguar Land Rover pushes up Tata's profits

Tata Motors has announced a 41% rise in profits booted by rise in sales by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) despite fall in profits within the Indian market (falling more than half to 1.74bn Rupees).

The rise is attributed to sales (32,000) of the new Range Rover Evoque model.

In the three months to December 31, China has also overtaken UK as JLR's biggest market. China now accounts for 17.2% of total sales compared with 16.5% for the UK. Sales have also increased in Russia. In the same quarter, JLR had a profit of £440m, up 57% from a year earlier.

Source: BBC News.

Car production in UK rises

In contrast to the rest of the manufacturing industry here in the UK, car production rose 1.3% in July this year compared with the same period last year and has gone up 3.7% in the first seven months, according to The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. An article in the Guardian is ascribed to the export orientated nature of the car industry and the "rise in demand of upmarket brands like Jaguar and Mini in emerging markets such as China".

Ford on the rise in India

Ford India recorded the highest ever sales in the first quarter for the company with 97% year-on-year (YonY) growth for the quarter ending March 2011. They sold over 10,000 vehicles there in March, making it the highest selling month so far. This was driven by strong sales of the Figo.

The Figo was selected as Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) 2011.

The car is being exported to South Africa, Nepal and Mexico.

Production at Ford India has crossed 100,000 units in a single financial year (April 2010-March 2011) as well.

The Ford Fiesta will be launched in India later this year.

Ford India has a dealer network of more than 170 outlets in 100 cities across India.

The Electric Car Wars

Edited from the press release by Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx

Toyota announced today that their global cumulative sales of hybrid vehicles have reached 3.03 million worldwide. They entered the market with the Coaster Hybrid bus in August 1997 followed by the original Prius in December of the same year. 

The Toyota Prius, now made in still drives almost all of its hybrid car sales. It is now joined by the hybrid version of the Auris, global production being in the UK. Other electric versions of all its car models are being rapidly introduced. Toyota is not very keen on pure electric cars at present levels of battery performance and focusses on the hybrid versions of their model.

Many car companies only realised the potential too late and the only way they had a chance of competing with Toyota from a position a long way behind, was to form alliances with other car companies. 

Now the BMW cooperation with PSA Peugeot Citroen is being solidified into a 50:50 joint venture, functioning in the second quarter, to share the formidable cost of developing hybrid powertrains and seek early volume.

Before that, Daimler AG, bought 10% of Tesla, and developed electric Smart and Mercedes models. They have struck a partnership with Renault Nissan to develop small cars, notably pure electric ones. Renault Nissan also partners with Mitsubishi on this. Mitsubishi promises electric versions of all new car models. Like Nissan and Fiat, it seems to prefer the pure electric small car route.

CPP Global Holdings to buy Spyker

A few days ago I carried news about the Spyker C8 Aileron moving to Coventry from Holland. According to recent news reports, Spyker has already signed a provisional deal to sell it's sportscar arm to CPP Global Holdings for around 32m euros (approx. £27mil).

The Coventry based firm is owned Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov and employs 250 people.

As part of the deal Spyker Cars would have to change its name. This would enable the company to focus on the Saab brand.

Volvo wants to build large luxury saloon

According to an article in the Financial Times, Li Shufu, the new chairman of Volvo and co-chair of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, wants to build a car to compete with the likes of the "to compete with the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes S-class".

The Chinese company recently finalised it's purchase of Volvo from the Ford Motor for US$1.5bn.

BTW, just check out the new S60 from Volvo.

Good news for UK car industry

The UK car industry finally has some good news. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today outlined a loan package potentially worth up to £2.3bn.

This includes a scheme to unlock £1.3bn of European loans and a government guarantee for up to £1bn of further loans.

The news was welcomed by Jaguar Land Rover and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

UK Car Industry in Trouble

Just last month, Tata the new owners of Jaguar and Land Rover announced that 850 workers could lose their jobs. This was following a meeting with Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary and attended by 17 senior representatives from the troubled motor industry. The representatives wanted a rescue package.

Today, the latest figures show that sales of new cars in the UK have fallen tremendously. The annual fall was the biggest since June 1980 - that's in 28 years. Read the BBC report: 'New car sales fall by one-third'.

Tata to create 700 jobs in the UK

Indian car maker, Tata recently announced a £ 700 million investment plan with the creation of 600 jobs at Jaguar Land Rover. It is also launching a new programme to recruit new graduate engineers in September. That's great news for the Midlands.

I have no idea why but unlike other companies, there is absolutely no news about this in both the Jaguar or the Land Rover sites. Only got to read bout it in the local newspaper.

Asian brands beat American brands in the US

According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, the three big US car makers, namely, General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler, combined sold less than (44.4 %) than the Asian brands - 10 brands in total (48.1 %) for the first time ever. The data was provided by the Autodata Corporation.

Amazingly, Toyota overtook GM in United States sales.

The drop in sales of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles with growth in sales of compact cars show that consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about fuel economy of their cars.

Read the full report here: U.S. cars lose to Asian rivals for first time

American car companies not doing that great

David Welch asks "Why Detroit is Stuck in Second Gear".

It's quite puzzling considering that Japanese brands are doing OK over there. It's not even a case of cheap imports to the US anymore as the Japanese companies are building their cars for the US markets in plants over there.

Is it styling, after sales service or are they really cheaper than the American brands?

BP factory in Whiting controversy

During my idealistic college days I was actively involved with a few environmental groups and during those times, I always viewed the oil companies as the villains - the worst environmental polluters. As I got older and wiser, I slowly realised that my extreme views might not necessarily be true. This may be partly due to the fact that I am surrounded by a lot of people in the oil industry, including my own family.

I realise that the oil industry players are aware of their social responsibilities and do contribute to minimise the environmental impact of their industrial activities. Now, whenever there is a controversy relating to a petroleum company, I do try to give them a chance to give their side of the story instead of rushing off to their gates with playcards to stage a protest as I might have done earlier.

One of the more recent controversies involve BP and their Factory in Whiting, Indiana. An article in the Chicago Tribune came heavily down on them, saying that

the massive BP oil refinery in Whiting, Ind., is planning to dump significantly more ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan, running counter to years of efforts to clean up the Great Lakes.

I am sure that any environmentally aware person would have a negative perception about the plant after reading the article. However, I only learnt later that this article does miss out on some facts.

Only treated water is released into Lake Michigan (more than 99.9% water) from the factory and not sludge. The sludge is treated seperately and not released into the lake. The discharge from the factory is also well within legal limits and even then. it will still be less than half of that allowed by federal environmental guidelines.

I was quite pleased to learn that the refinery voluntarily reduced total suspended solids in its water discharge by 40% in just the past four years. BP has also announced plans to invest about $150 million to enhance the refinery’s wastewater treatment capability. I am sure BP plans to work closely and in a transparent manner with the authorities, the environmental groups and most importantly, the local communities that live near the lake.

Check out the BP Whiting Refinery Fact Sheet for yourself.