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Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull plant has begun production of the Jaguar XE.
It is the first time Jaguar cars have been manufactured in Solihull, the home of Land Rover.
A total of 55 UK based suppliers were awarded £4bn in contracts to support the introduction of the new model
In five years the plant, which features Europe’s largest aluminium body shop, has almost trebled production and doubled its workforce to 9,000.
The start of XE production at Solihull is the first step in making the site a dual-branded manufacturing operation.
Earlier this year, the company confirmed its Jaguar performance crossover, the F-PACE is to be built there.
The Solihull plant builds Defender, Discovery, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Jaguar XE models.
Last year it produced 17,781 Defender, 45,080 Discovery, 82,440 Range Rover sport and 53,738 Range Rover vehicles. It operates a three-shift, 24-hour production.