LONDON -- Jaguar Land Rover said on Tuesday it will build its next-generation Land Rover Discovery in Slovakia, the first model chosen for the 1 billion pound ($1.25 billion) plant which is due to open in 2018.
The luxury carmaker, owned by India's Tata Motors, picked Slovakia last year as the location for the new factory that will have an annual output of up to 300,000 vehicles and is one of the country's biggest foreign direct investments.
JLR currently builds the Discovery at a capacity-constrained plant in Solihull, central England. Production of the SUV will continue in the UK after the Slovakia plant comes on line, a company spokesman confirmed to Automotive News Europe.
"The production of Discovery is part of a multi-plant strategy that will see Discovery built in both Solihull and Slovakia," the spokesman said.
The automaker rapidly boosting its model lineup and production volumes to reach 1 million units by the end of the decade and has opened new factories in China and Brazil.
It has contracted Magna Steyr in Austria to build Jaguar's forthcoming I-Pace full-electric crossover.
Automotive News Europe contributed to this report
