Jaguar Land Rover to invest 200 million pounds for the new F-Type

Jaguar Land Rover has seen a major change in fortunes since Tata group brought the iconic brand few years back. The two British luxury car brands are currently valued at over 14 billion, from 2.4 billion Pounds (amount paid by Tata to Ford for the buyout). JLR is doing well globally and has been investing at its various facilities to keep up the momentum. 

Earlier this year JLR recruited 1,000 more work force and started third shift at its Halewood factory in Merseyside, to meet the global demand for its Range Rover Evoque and the Free Lander 2. The Range Rover Evoque is apparently sold out for next two years. Then, the company announced an investment of 355 million Pounds at the Wolverhampton for new engine plant, which will also bring 750 jobs. And now, JLR is planning 200 million pounds investment at the Bromwich facility to increase capacity by 50 per cent and add another 1000 jobs – this is the same facility that was under scanner for shutout few years back.

The work is due to begin immediately and has been discussed with the company’s trade union. The new investment will be used to build the new Jaguar F-Type sports car, the successor to the historic E-type. The F-type will join Jaguar's existing range of cars – the XF saloon and Sportbrake, XJ saloon and XK coupe/convertible. Full F-type technical and range details will be announced later in 2012. It will go on sale in mid 2013 in Europe and we expect it to come to India by late 2013 or at the 2014 Auto Expo.

For those of you who are not well versed with Jaguar’s history, the F-type was a concept study that debuted twelve years back at the 2000 New York Auto Show. The concept car was a convertible and was based on the Jaguar XK180 Concept from 1997. The idea behind the F-type concept back then was to create a compact convertible sports car that was contemporary, functional and distinctively Jaguar. However, as the years passed, Jaguar’s research and development budgets shrunk under Ford’s ownership and the F-type’s fortunes were buried. But now with the financial might of the Tata group bringing Jaguar back into profitability, the cat is free to leap again.

The F-type’s design will be inspired largely by the C-X16 Concept that was shown last year. However, unlike the C-X16, the Jaguar F-type will be built in a convertible form and strictly with two seats - as the original concept envisioned back in year 2000. It will utilize Jaguar’s expertise of an all-aluminium construction and will be powered by a variety of petrol engines that will belong to a new range of powerplant family.