Jaguar Land Rover to set up in Slovakia instead of Poland

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plans to build a new vehicle factory in Slovakia, with Poland missing out on an investment of 1 Billion British pounds and 6000 new jobs.

The Financial Times daily refers to two people with insight of the decision saying the company, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, has signed a letter of intent with the Slovakian government to build the factory in the western city of Nitra.

Poland and the Czech Republic have also been on a shortlist of countries which Jaguar Land Rover considered for the construction of the plant. The British car maker plans to build its first European production plant outside the UK, and has been looking for 300-500 hectare land for its planned factory. The factory will employ 6,000 people, with the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAiZ) proposing JLR land in the Legnica Special Economic Zone, close to the country’s S3 expressway.

JLR will invest about GBP 1 billion in the new plant, which will have a capacity of 300,000 cars per year, the Times reports. The first cars out of the factory gates will likely begin production in 2018. Central Europe has become an important production hub for carmakers such as Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota and Hyundai, which have set up factories in the region as they look to lower their production costs while retaining EU market access and quality standards.

Source: Financial Times