New Land Rover Discovery Sport to be built at Halewood

The new Land Rover Discovery Sport (pictured) to be built in Halewood

The new Land Rover Discovery Sport – effectively a replacement for the Land Rover Freelander – is expected to make its debut at the Paris Motor Show in the Autumn and go on sale in early 2015. And when the new Discovery Sport goes in to production it will be built at Halewood on Merseyside, Jaguar Land Rover has announced.

JLR has created 250 new jobs at Halewood to support production of the new Discovery Sport and invested a further £200 million in the already hugely successful Halewood Plant.

In the course of the last four years, the workforce at Halewood has trebled to 4,750, the total investment in the plant has hit £500 million and the plant works on a 3-shift system 24 hours a day to keep up with burgeoning demand for JLR’s cars.

Richard Else, JLR’s Halewood Operations Director, said:

I am delighted to be welcoming the new Land Rover Discovery Sport to Halewood. Its arrival has been a further boost to the region and to our committed and loyal workforce who are all passionate ambassadors for this great company.

In many ways, Halewood has embodied the transformation of Jaguar Land Rover. We have seen our work force treble and production quadruple in just four years. Today we are operating three shifts, 24-hours a day to meet global demand and I am confident that the team will rise to the challenge and deliver a flawless launch of this exciting new model.

The new Land Rover Discovery Sport – previewed by the Discovery Vision Concept at New York earlier this year – is the first of a new family of Discovery models which will see the Land Rover badged cars brought in to the 21st century in the same way Land Rover has managed with the Range Rover, Range Rover Evoque and Range Rover Sport.

If Land Rover get the new Discovery family right – and that looks likely judging by the Vision Concept – the current record volume of Land Rover sales will grow even further.

By Cars UK