Jaguar Land Rover to build its new production plant in western Slovakia
This will be the first time that a British carmaker will open a production plant in Slovakia. This announcement follows an agreement between Jaguar Land Rover and the Government of the Slovak Republic. The production plant, which will employ around 2,800 people, is to be built in Nitra, western Slovakia. The company will refinance around £1 billion. Slovakia proudly competed for this investor with the USA, Mexico and neighbouring Poland.
Dr Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, commented: “Jaguar Land Rover is delighted to welcome Slovakia to our family. The new factory will complement our existing factories in the UK, China, India and Brazil and is the next step in our company strategy. We chose Slovakia for its qualities. It already has an established automotive sector, which accounts for 43% of the country’s total manufacturing sector. It has over 300 suppliers from this sector in close proximity and an excellent logistics infrastructure; this only reinforced our decision that this country would be ideal for our new plant.”
The first cars are expected to leave the production line in 2018. In the first phase, 150,000 vehicles per year will be produced at the Jaguar plant in Nitra. The goal is to produce up to 300,000 cars.
