JLR Sets 2017 Target for Opening of New R&D Center

Construction is under way on Jaguar Land Rover’s planned £150 million ($220 million) national automotive innovation center that will serve as a technology hub for its advanced research team when it opens in about two years.

The automotive technology, innovation and education facility, to complement JLR’s product development centers in nearby Gaydon and Whitley, is intended to keep the company at the forefront of global innovation.

The new facility at the University of Warwick in Coventry, 110 miles (177 km) northwest of London, will be the new home of JLR’s advanced research teams, while Gaydon and Whitley will continue as centers for engineering and product-development activities.

The new facility represents a partnership between the Warwick Manufacturing Group, JLR, Tata Motors European Technical Center and the U.K. government’s Higher Education Funding Council England.

The 355,209-sq.-ft. (33,000-sq.-m) facility, due to open in spring 2017, will boast cutting-edge workshops, laboratories, virtual engineering suites and advanced powertrain facilities. It will be equipped to handle a full range of design, visualization and prototyping activities.

The development of the NAIC project is the next stage in JLR’s strategy to further its global R&D and engineering capability. It employs more than 8,000 engineers and designers in the U.K. and is investing heavily in new technologies, skills and facilities.

The automaker plans to spend up to £3.8 billion ($5.6 billion) in product creation in fiscal 2015-2016, adding to the more than £10 billion ($14.6 billion) it has invested in the last five years.

“The NAIC will have a significant role inspiring the engineers of tomorrow and will help develop the skills we need the U.K. to nurture and develop to ensure we remain globally competitive,” JLR CEO Ralf Speth says in a statement.

Along with hosting visits from schoolchildren to inspire them to begin a STEM-based career (science, technology, engineering and math), the center also is intended to address the shortage of skilled R&D staff in the automotive supply chain.

The aim is to help create a pipeline of people into companies nationwide, including the creation of many apprenticeships in specific areas of vehicle technology.

The operation will house 1,000 skilled workers, and JLR plans to locate 600 of its engineers, researchers and technologists there to work with academics and R&D specialists from across the automotive supply chain.

Details of the specific research projects will be announced later, but JLR says they will be long-term, multidisciplinary challenges, including projects around electrification, smart and connected cars and the human-machine interface.

Construction of the new facility comes at a time when JLR is riding high.

The automaker plans 50 product actions over the next five years, 12 of them this year.

JLR sales have more than doubled since 2009 and last year deliveries rose 9% to 462,678 units, helping it almost triple its turnover to £19.4 billion ($28.4 billion) in its financial year ending March 31, 2014, with a profit before tax of £2.5 billion ($3.66 billion).