Jaguar Land Rover to open R&D centre in Ireland

Working alongside Jaguar Land Rover’s engineering team in the UK, the Shannon facility will play an important role in realising the company’s vision for electric and automated driving vehicles. It will develop new technologies to support electrification and self-driving features on future Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. “Technical innovation lies at the heart of Jaguar Land Rover and our innovation is continuous. The new facility provides an exciting opportunity for us to pioneer future autonomous and electrification technologies. The heart of our business will always be in the UK. The creation of a team in Shannon strengthens our international engineering capabilities and complements our existing team of more than 10,000 engineers based in the UK,” said Nick Rogers, Executive Director of Product Engineering, in the press release. Supported by the Irish Development Agency, the Shannon team will start by developing the next generation of electrical architecture as well as exploring advanced driver assistance systems features for future vehicles. The company says that all new vehicle lines will be offered with the option of electrification from 2020. It will introduce a portfolio of electrified products across the model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles. The first fully electric performance SUV, the Jaguar I-PACE, goes on sale in 2018.