British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced plans to invest £65 million ($810 million) to strengthen its specialized paint facilities globally.
The investment aims to meet the “growing demand” for personalized luxury cars across the brand and reduce the environmental impact of carbon-intensive manufacturing.
Over the past financial year, JLR has seen a significant increase in client interest in custom color options, more than doubling since fiscal year 222 for its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models.
The investment will create new paint facilities in Castle Bromwich, West Midlands, UK and Nitra, Slovakia.
These facilities are expected to increase JLR’s capabilities in bespoke paint and luxury height pallet options.
The expansion will enable more than 17,000 additional client orders per year and make exclusive paint colors available across other JLR brands for the first time, the company said.
Andrea Debbane, Head of Sustainability at JLR, said: “JLR is preparing to expand its facilities and offer thousands more paint options across its brands, as we see a significant increase in clients wanting to personalize their vehicles, but in the most sustainable and efficient way.” We are preparing to do so in any way possible.
As part of a £41m investment in a new Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) facility in Castle Bromwich, £26m will be allocated to replace existing paint booths with advanced application booths due to be installed in 2025 .
The new booth is equipped with a fully automated spray robot, which is expected to reduce paint waste by 30% compared to hand-painted methods.
Additionally, a new £10m universal paint line is underway at JLR’s Nitra facility in Slovakia.
The line includes a new fully electric paint booth and curing oven, aimed at reducing CO2E emissions by approximately 500mt per year.
The universal paint line will be equipped to offer unlimited color variations with the first vehicles expected to roll off the line in 2026.
In addition to the new facility, JLR has installed a smart oven control system and new heat exchangers to improve the efficiency of existing operations.
The system can automatically shut down during periods of inactivity, and the heat exchanger recovers heat from the flue gas, potentially saving around 2,250mt of CO2E per year.
Earlier this month, JLR strengthened its partnership with TATA Communications to strengthen its connected vehicle ecosystem through the TATA Communications Move platform.
‘JLR invests £65m to expand custom luxury car color facility’ was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand.
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