2019 Land Rover Discovery Sport Hse Luxury on 2040-cars

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Jaguar-Land Rover builds millionth vehicle at Halewood

Jaguar-Land Rover is not what you'd call a volume automaker by any stretch of the imagination. But in the dozen years since it started manufacturing at its Halewood plant near Liverpool, England, the automaker has already built its millionth vehicle.
The landmark vehicle is a Range Rover Evoque, done up in white with red roof and mirrors, black wheels and a red and black interior. The crossover is set to be donated to Cancer Research UK, which will auction it off next year to help fund its projects in the north-west of the country.
Halewood started manufacturing the Jaguar X-Type in 2001, then went on to assemble the Land Rover LR2 / Freelander 2 before taking on production of the Evoque a year and a half ago. The facility reached the 300,000-unit milestone just last year as production moved to a 24-hour cycle for the first time in either marque's history.

Jaguar Land Rover mulling factory in Georgia?

London's Sunday Times reported last October that Jaguar-Land Rover was sniffing around The South looking for a potential manufacturing site, and was "talking to several southern states." We imagine Georgia was one of them; The Peach State has Kia Motors Manufacturing in West Point, it claims Porsche HQ as a resident, and soon the Mercedes-Benz regional office, too. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has said that Governor Nathan Deal recently took the initiative to fly to the UK to "make prospect calls" with JLR executives about a deal. We don't have any details about the calls, but we'll guess that they involved Deal making a financial case for GA over other states while sipping a cup of tea. It's said that the English luxury maker wants to build a factory here with a 200,000-unit capacity, to take advantage of the same financial efficiencies that have planted other automakers in the US and Mexico; it opened a facility in China last year to build the Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover Discovery Sport, and the Jaguar XE, and is casting eyes over Brazilian and Saudi Arabian soil for other facilities. No timetable has been given for a decision. Related Video: News Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: AP Photo/Tony Ding Government/Legal Plants/Manufacturing Jaguar Land Rover Luxury

Weekly Recap: Chrysler forges ahead with new name, same mission

Chrysler is history. Sort of. The 89-year-old automaker was absorbed into the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles conglomerate that officially launched this fall, and now the local operations will no longer use the Chrysler Group name. Instead, it's FCA US LLC. Catchy, eh? Here's what it means: The sign outside Chrysler's Auburn Hills, MI, headquarters says FCA (which it already did) and obviously, all official documents use the new name, rather than Chrysler. That's about it. The executives, brands and location of the headquarters aren't changing. You'll still be able to buy a Chrysler 200. It's just made by FCA US LLC. This reinforces that FCA is one company going forward – the seventh largest automaker in the world – not a Fiat-Chrysler dual kingdom. While the move is symbolic, it is a conflicting moment for Detroiters, though nothing is really changing. Chrysler has been owned by someone else (Daimler, Cerberus) for the better part of two decades, but it still seemed like it was Chrysler in the traditional sense: A Big 3 automaker in Detroit. Now, it's clearly the US division of a multinational industrial empire; that's good thing for its future stability, but bittersweet nonetheless. Undoubtedly, it's an emotion that's also being felt at Fiat's Turin, Italy, headquarters as the company will no longer officially be called Fiat there. Digest that for a moment. What began in 1899 as the Societa Anonima Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino – or FIAT – is now FCA Italy SpA. In a statement, FCA said the move "is intended to emphasize the fact that all group companies worldwide are part of a single organization." The new names are the latest changes orchestrated by CEO Sergio Marchionne, who continues to makeover FCA as an international automaker that has ties to its heritage – but isn't tied down by it. Everything from the planned spinoff of Ferrari, a new FCA headquarters in London and the pending demise of the Dodge Grand Caravan in 2016 has shown that the company is willing to move quickly, even if it's controversial. While renaming the United States and Italian divisions were the moves most likely to spur controversy, FCA said other regions across the globe will undergo similar name changes this year. Despite the mixed emotions, it's worth noting: The name of the merged company that oversees all of these far-flung units is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Obviously the Chrysler corporate name isn't completely history.