UK – The 20,000 sq.m facility near Coventry will house the HQ of the OEM’s Special Vehicle Operations as well as manufacturing, painting, technical, and customer commissioning and presentation areas. Jaguar Land Rover has invested £20m ($25.9m).
“The SVO technical centre is a very modern facility, inspired by a Formula One engineering centre,” commented John Edwards, managing director of JLR’s SVO. “This new technical centre enables us to build on the successful launches of the Range Rover Sport SVR, Range Rover SVAutobiography and Jaguar F-TYPE SVR, and provide an excellent foundation for the growth of the SVO business with the introduction of exciting new vehicle personalisation programmes.”
According to JLR, the workshop features advanced workstations which will enable the hand-building of SVO products to “the highest possible quality”. The largest part of the complex is the paint facility, covering 12,000 sq.m and featuring 546 metres of conveyors. The OEM claims it is “one of the most environmentally friendly paint facilities in the world”, with smart ovens to reduce gas consumption and light-emitting diodes to save electricity. The use of dry, recycled cardboard filters will also cut water consumption.
All vehicles will receive a double clearcoat to provide extra protection and a high-quality finish. The basecoat will be applied manually, with technicians first passing through an air shower to remove any loose fibres that could contaminate the surface of the vehicles. Specialist lighting will be used for quality-control inspections.
Finally, in the manufacturing zone, the vehicles will be subjected to what JLR believes are “some of the most extreme quality-control procedures in the world”.
JLR established its SVO division in June 2014 to take responsibility for halo car products (SVO), vehicle personalisation, classic car programmes and branded goods.