2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Pure Sport Utility 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Jaguar Land Rover releases a vintage-looking infotainment system for classics

Jaguar and Land Rover have a new option for owners of its older vehicles: a touchscreen infotainment system. Much like the Porsche classic infotainment head unit released a few years ago, this one tries to blend in with its interior surroundings. Five distinct designs of these "Classic Infotainment Systems" are offered in an effort to have an option that fits well with the interior of any particular car offered by Jag or Land Rover over the past few decades. Chrome and black options are available for Jaguars, while brushed aluminum and black are the choices for Land Rovers. The infotainment system has navigation with 2D or 3D maps and Bluetooth audio. Sure, you don't need to stream Spotify in a 1970s Land Rover, but now you can. Jaguar says it'll offer much higher quality sound with a 4 x 45 watt output from the single DIN head unit, but you might need to upgrade those ancient speakers to actually take advantage of it. There's no mention of satellite radio like Porsche's unit offers, unfortunately. It is a radio though, so we get both AM and FM functionality. Jaguar says it's "compatible with negative earth vehicles" (newer vehicles use negative grounding systems) and retails for $1,796 before taxes in the U.S. You can buy and have it professionally fitted at an "authorized" Jaguar or Land Rover dealer if you'd like as well. It's easy to shake your fist at such a device for classic cars, but this head unit tried hard to be an elegant piece — we're still not sure about slotting it into an old E-Type though... Here are U.S. specific model fitments: Jaguar XJ40; XJS; XJ Series 3 Sedan Land Rover Defender 90, 110; Range Rover Classic (93-96); Discovery 1 (94-98); Freelander (97-04) Related Video: Featured Gallery Jaguar Land Rover Classic Infotainment System News Source: Jaguar Jaguar Land Rover Technology Infotainment

Jaguar Land Rover building new R&D center for hybrids, EVs, autonomous cars

The success of Jaguar Land Rover in recent years has largely been down to a resurgent product lineup, but a recent move into the research and development will see the British-based, Indian-owned brands take the fight to its German rivals more aggressively than ever before.
JLR is investing 50 million pounds ($80,345,000, as of this writing) in a joint R&D center in central England. The move will more than triple its staff dedicated to research, from 150 to 500, with Wolfgang Epple, JLR's Director of Research and Technology telling Automotive News Europe, "In order to play among the big animals in automotive and to be anchored in the mind of customers you have to have offered something unique, to be first in market. We want to be one of the key premier automotive manufacturers."
Jaguar Land Rover's 50-million-pound contribution represents more than half of the 94-million-pound tab, on the so-called National Automotive Innovation Campus. Based at Warwick University, Tata's European Technical Center, Warwick Manufacturing Group and the Higher Education Funding Council, an agency of the British government, are all chipping in for the facility.

Jaguar Land Rover CEO: Wrong Brexit deal will cost thousands of UK jobs

BIRMINGHAM, England — The wrong Brexit deal could cost tens of thousands of jobs, the boss of Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover warned on Tuesday, saying he had no idea whether his plants would be able to operate after Britain leaves the European Union next year. Ralf Speth also said that the company would not be able to build cars if customs checks meant that the motorway to and from the southern English port of Dover, which is used to transport components, becomes a "car park" due to snarl-ups of people no longer able to move freely among EU countries. Speth made the warning at a conference in Birmingham, central England, speaking shortly before Prime Minister Theresa May, who is battling to have her so-called Chequers Brexit plan accepted by many in her Conservative Party as well as the EU ahead of Britain's departure from the bloc on March 29. "A thousand (jobs were) lost as a result of diesel policy, and those numbers will be counted in the tens of thousands if we do not get the right Brexit deal," warned Speth, referring to redundancies made earlier this year at the firm. "Currently I do not even know if any of our manufacturing facilities in the UK will be able to function on the 30th," he said. The boss of JLR, which built nearly a third of Britain's cars last year, also said long-standing issues around low productivity in Britain could be compounded by a Brexit agreement which made the country less competitive. "It is thousands of pounds cheaper to produce vehicles for instance in Eastern Europe than in Solihull, and what decisions will I be forced to make if Brexit means not merely that costs go up but that we cannot physically build cars on time and on budget in the UK?" he said.Reporting by Costas Pitas