The new Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations HQ is to be located on the site of Peugeot’s former Ryton production plant in Coventry, which closed in 2007.
Based on Prologis Park – a new development that’s risen from the old Peugeot 206 factory – Jaguar Land Rover will create 100 new highly skilled engineering and technical jobs at the site, which will employ a total team of 150.
JLR will spend £20 million equipping the site, which will build all the bespoke Special Operations cars. There will also be a VIP customer commissioning suite within the facility, which is minutes away from Coventry’s private jet-friendly airport.
MD of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations, John Edwards, said: “We are excited by the capability and potential that this new facility will give us. We will be creating truly iconic vehicles that reinforce the global reputation of both Jaguar and Land Rover brands as we expand our product portfolio and fulfil our ambitious plans.”
The new site, likely to be dubbed ‘Oxford Road’ because of the road next to it, will complement Jaguar Land Rover’s existing engineering facilities at Whitley and Gaydon, plus its new Jaguar Heritage workshop at Browns Lane, which is located on Jaguar’s famous Coventry plant.
Currently being fitted out with specialist testing equipment, F1-grade workshops and a specialist paint studio, operations will begin at Oxford Road towards the end of 2014.
The first car to be built there will be the limited-to-250 Jaguar F-Type Project 7, a car that is already sold out in the UK.
The original Ryton factory was formerly HQ of the Rootes Group. PSA brought it in 1978 and started building the 309 there in 1985, which was replaced by the 306 in 1993.
The 206 was built there too from 1998 but Peugeot announced in 2006 that it was closing the factory. It was demolished in late 2007, after being brought by a property developer.
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