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NEWS
Land Rover names Discovery Sport production base
250 new jobs over next four years at Halewood plant to assemble Freelander successorJaguar Land Rover has announced overnight that the replacement for the Freelander, the Discovery Sport, will be built at the company's Halewood plant in the UK.
Halewood already builds the Freelander, alongside the Range Rover Evoque, so the Merseyside facility was odds-on favourite to build the Discovery Sport. But reflecting Land Rover's high hopes for the new model the plant upgrade for the Discovery Sport will set the company back £200 million.
Employing 250 new staff for Discovery Sport will take the total workforce at Halewood to 4750, which is three times the number working in the plant four years ago. Over the same period the company has invested £500 million in Halewood, including the new investment for the plant upgrade to accommodate the Discovery Sport.
Since the start of this year, Land Rover has upgraded the Halewood plant with a £45 million Aida servo press line, 260 robots, laser welding resources and monitoring & reporting systems for the purpose of quality assurance. Primarily due to the popularity of the Evoque – which averaged 100,000 units a year during its first two years on sale – production at Halewood has quadrupled over the past four years, and the plant is currently operating 24 hours a day, by means of three shifts.
"The Land Rover Discovery Sport is the next in a line of exciting new products to come from Jaguar Land Rover," said Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Dr. Ralf Speth, as quoted in a press release.
"I am delighted that Halewood – and Liverpool – has been selected for this new investment. It is totally deserved, and strengthens the 'special relationship' that bonds Jaguar Land Rover to this great city."
Understood to be larger than the Freelander, the Discovery Sport will be based on the Range Rover Evoque platform and will spearhead a new Discovery 'family' branching out from the Land Rover brand. This leisure family, previewed by the Discovery Vision concept car in New York earlier this year, is distinct from the brand's 'luxury' (Range Rover) and 'utility' (Defender) families.
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