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Jaguar Land Rover to spend additional £250 million a year with UK suppliers

JLR to spend and extra £1 billion with UK suppliers The Range Rover Evoque phenomenon continues with Jaguar Land Rover announcing an extra £250 million additional annual spend with UK suppliers. Just last week we had the news that Land Rover’s Freelander 2 had hit sales of 300,000 since its launch in 2007, but if the Range Rover Evoque continues selling the way it has that figure will be eclipsed in half the time by the Evoque. And it’s sales of the Evoque – Land Rover has sold 60,000 Evoques in the first seven months on sale – that’s driving the need to spend more with suppliers and the announcement today that UK suppliers can look forward to an extra £250 million a year being spent to support the Evoque’s production at Halewood.

Chevrolet to pull out of Europe

General Motors is ‘strengthening’ its ‘European brand strategy’ by pulling Chevrolet out of mainstream markets in Western and Eastern Europe. This is ‘largely due to a challenging business model and the difficult economic situation’ – but does not mean that Chevrolet is set to disappear entirely. On Bing: see pictures of European Chevrolets Find out how much a used Chevrolet costs on Auto Trader Instead, Chevrolet ‘tailor its presence’ by offering only select ‘iconic’ vehicles from the marque’s global portfolio.

CES: Cranking up Harman's QuantumLogic 3D surround-sound system

Yesterday we reported how Audi was readying a lavish 3D sound experience with 23 speakers and 1,400 watts of goosebump-inducing audio power. Not to be outdone, Harman had been quietly developing a system of its own: Quantum Logic 3D brings together 25 speakers and more than 2,000 watts of Tubthumping power to a new car near you, like driving inside Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Sitting inside the demonstration BMW 7-Series that Harman painstakingly lifted into the Studio at the Palms, Global Audio Engineering vice president Phil Muzio explained, "great music is delivered in stereo, yet our consumer research indicates that people enjoy surround sound." QuantumLogic 3D's surround sound expands beyond the boundaries of the vehicle's cabin, providing "a sense of detail and spatial placement that you don't get in stereo." Five height component speakers mounted in the corners of the headliner, and above the rearview mirror, elevates audio beyond the confines of the roof, "almost like you're in a convertible," said Muzio.