10th December 2020
Jaguar Land Rover opened its state-of-the-art €1.4bn (£1bn) manufacturing facility in Nitra in October 2018. The new 300,000m² facility stands at the forefront of aluminium manufacturing and engineering expertise in Slovakia, with an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year. Plant in Nitra is building Land Rover Defender and Land Rover Discovery models.
Current situation in the plant in Nitra
Only a few days ago, in the end of October, the factory in Nitra celebrated its second anniversary since the start of production. We are still in the process of growing. We manufacture two models, iconic Defender and Discovery, implement complex production processes and bring a number of sophisticated production technologies.
We have interrupted production during the 1st Covid pandemic phase, and restarted as of 1st June, both of our shifts are fully running. Our priority was health and safety of our people. We have implemented a wide range of measures on site to prevent spread of pandemic, and we continue to precisely implement them on our site.
Investments and new models in Nitra
The plan is currently such that next year we will introduce a shorter three-door Defender 90, Defender in a plug-in hybrid version and Defender with a fixed metal roof, i.e. in the Hard Top version.
These days, the Discovery model was introduced in an upgraded version. Of course, it’s not just about the look, the versatility of the vehicle, driving characteristics or technologies have been improved, which contribute to safe driving or the comfort of the crew.
Dealers have been accepting orders for the MY21 model line since September.
Electrification
„To meet our Destination zero mission, we as a global comany are committed to a strategy of electrification across of vehicle range. We have a growing portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles as well as continuing to offer the latest diesel and petrol engines, giving our customers even more choice.
All Jaguar Land Rover vehicles, electric, hybrid, petrol or diesel will benefit from even further reduced emissions aided by a combination of lightweighting, energy conservation and engine downsizing technologies.“
Covid and its impact
“As our models are manufactured for the whole world in Nitra, we are affected by global developments in the world, where individual states regulate sales in different ways during a pandemic. Globally, sales, profit and cash flow improved from July to September compared to the previous quarter. Jaguar Land Rover generated a profit of £ 65 million before tax, an improvement from a loss of £ 413 million in the previous quarter, but still less than £ 156 million from the same period last year. We are also continuing the Charge + project, which the company should save approximately two and a half billion pounds this financial year.”
People
“Thanks to the investment we have brought here, we employ 3,000 people and we have 23,000 jobs indirectly linked to us, which benefits the whole region.”
Diversity
“Thirty percent of our employees are women, which we are very proud of, diversity is important to us. The situation on the labour market is still not favourable, there are not enough qualified people for modern automotive operations. We try to create an environment that makes our work attractive, including a guaranteed increase in salaries in production, benefits or education. We still want to improve the conditions to keep turnover low.”
“We are part of Nitra and the Nitra region, where the vast majority of our employees come from. We are also showing interest in moving from other regions, but they encounter a lack of accommodation, permanent or temporary housing, near the plant, there is a lack of infrastructure. We still have global experts and specialists, especially from the United Kingdom. We focus primarily on the recruitment of workers from Slovakia, we came to Slovakia to create jobs for people from this country.”
Education
“I have been working in this segment for 27 years and I see how much has changed. Automation, connectivity, electrification and so on. This country will need and will be of great interest to digitization specialists, mechatronics and other specialists on the market. As these skills are still not sufficient among graduates or in the labor market as a whole, we have our own training programs and almost 500 types of training to be able to provide the qualifications needed to make our cars.”
