New Jaguar Land Rover F-Type to Receive an Investment of 200 million pounds

The fate of Jaguar Land Rover has taken a 180 degree since it has been acquired by the Indian auto giant Tata Motors. Tata Motors bought JLR for 2.4 billion pounds in 2008 and now the British luxury car brand stands high at a value of 14 billion pounds. The company has been doing well at a global level and in order to maintain the gained steam, JLR has been making huge investments in its facilities that are scattered all over the world. The company recently announced about recruiting 1,000 more employees for working in the third shift that was starting at the Halewood factory in Merseyside. The driving factor behind this step was the need of meeting the global demand of the Land Rover Freelander 2 and the Range Rover Evoque which is apparently sold out for the next two years.

Jaguar Land Rover had also planned an investment of around 355 million pounds for the company’s new engine plant at Wolverhampton which in turn would create job opportunities for 750 more people. The most recent happening which has made the company pay a visit to the news section is the announcement of the investment of 200 million pounds at its Bromwich facility which is directed towards increasing the overall capacity by 50 percent and creating 1000 more job opportunities. Interestingly this is the same facility which was on the verge of the being shut down few years back.

This investment is scheduled to materialize soon and the discussion with the trade union of the company regarding the beginning of the work has been done. This investment is dedicated toward the construction of the new Jaguar F-Type sports car which is guessed to be the heir of the legendary Jaguar E-Type and will be joining the existing XJ and XF saloon, Sportbrake, XK coupe/convertible. The details regarding the technical and other specifications are expected to hit the news in the latter half of 2012. The expected time for the sale of this car in Europe is somewhere in the mid of 2013 whereas the expected time for launch of India is the late 2013 or 2014 Auto Expo.

The F-Type concept germinated in the minds of Jaguar’s think-tank around 12 years back at the New York Auto Show of 2000. The concept that debuted in 2000 was a convertible based on the Jaguar’s 1997 concept of XK180. Back then, the notion behind the building of F-type was to come up with a contemporary convertible sports car that was compact, functional and quintessentially Jaguar. The dreams of F-Type were shattered because of the shrinking of the budget that manifested during the time Ford owned the brand. The company is now profiting under the strong backing of Tata Motors and is all set to embark on living its squashed dreams.

The inspiration of the design philosophy of the F-type is the C-X16 concept that the company demonstrated in 2011. The Jaguar F-Type will be following the original (year 2000) concept and will be built in the form of a convertible strictly with two seats. Jaguar is going to power this car with a variety of petrol engines from its new range of powerplant family and will also utilize its expertise of an all-aluminum construction.