Jaguar Land Rover plans to create 1,700 jobsSeptember 10, 2013 - 11:14 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plans to create 1,700 jobs at its plant in Solihull as part of a £1.5bn investment in expanding its product range, according to BBC News. The money will be spent on designing systems to allow the chassis of future models to be made out of aluminium. The first of these models will be a new mid-sized sports saloon car to be introduced in 2015. The announcement was made at the Frankfurt Motor Show by JLR chief executive Ralf Speth. "Today's announcement signals Jaguar Land Rover's ambitions to push the boundaries and redefine premium car ownership," he said. "Jaguar Land Rover is a business driven by design, technology and innovation and this investment and level of job creation is yet further evidence of our commitment to advancing the capability of the UK automotive sector and its supply chain." The design teams will be creating what they call an aluminium architecture, which is the part of the car on which the bodywork, seats and engine sit. The idea is that it will be flexible enough to be the base for future model of either Jaguar or Land Rover cars. Carmakers are increasingly using aluminium in their vehicles because its light weight improves fuel efficiency. The first car using the aluminium platform will be a smaller than other Jaguar models. But in order to demonstrate the flexibility of the system, JLR has also unveiled a concept car called the C-X17, which is halfway between a sports car and an SUV, and could also be based on the new chassis. JLR said that the jobs at the Solihull site would bring the total number of jobs it had created in the UK over the last three years to almost 11,000. It also stressed that the investment would involve significant extra spending with its suppliers. JLR has been owed by India's Tata Motors since 2008. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Concept to complete Yerevan Cascade discussed at city hall A conceptual proposal to complete the Cascade complex in downtown Yerevan has been presented by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Yerevan reacts to Baku’s proposal to see Minsk Group abolition Alen Simonyan has declared that Armenia is taking steps aimed at concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to travel to Armenia Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs James C. O’Brien will travel to Yerevan on June 10-12. Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life, Strong Mind IDBank and Idram summarize the results of the May program of “The Power of One Dram”. |