JLR Choses Slovakia for New Assembly Plant

Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. has signed a letter of intent to erect an assembly plant in Nitra, Slovakia. The company says it expect to make a final decision on the factory before the end of 2015.

JLR had been considering sites in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Poland and the U.S. Slovakia already builds Audi, Citroen, Kia, Peugeot, Porsche and VW vehicles. The country also will produce Lamborghini's upcoming Urus crossover vehicle.

Last year JLR sold 454,000 vehicles worldwide. The company predicts its volume will reach about 828,500 by 2020.

JLR didn't say how much the new facility will cost or what its initial output will be when production launches in 2017. The company says that in 10 years the factory could be equipped to build as many as 300,000 aluminum-intensive Jaguar cars and Land Rover SUVs annually.

The Slovakia factory will join three existing JLR assembly plants in England, one in China one scheduled to open next year in Brazil. The company also assembles vehicles in India from kits.

JLR insists the new factory doesn't signal a decrease in support for its operations in the U.K. The company plans to spend 3.5 billion (€4.9 billion) between now and the end of 2016 on product development and production capacity. Its British factories will launch of 12 new or updated models in the same period.