- Luxury vehicle manufacturer to expand its paint facilities to meet increasing client demand for personalization across its brands
- JLR’s paint shops in Castle Bromwich, UK, and Nitra, Slovakia will be reimagined as part of ongoing efforts to reduce energy and water usage at its global manufacturing facilities and meet its net zero ambitions
- A key priority of its Reimagine strategy, JLR is focused on reducing the environmental impact of the most carbon‑intensive manufacturing processes in the automotive industry
- £24m (approx. $29.9m) expansion at Nitra will create 120 new jobs and see a new electric universal paint line installed, enabling virtually limitless color capability and marking a key milestone towards JLR’s ambition to move to fully electrified paint shops in the future
- Castle Bromwich will have £41 million (approx. $59.2m) injected to transform it into the new home of SVO paint operations and will see the site's existing paint booths replaced for significant energy and water savings
Mahwah, NJ ‑ January 31, 2025: JLR is investing £65m (approx. $81.2m) in expanding its special paint facilities globally to meet the growing demand for personalized luxury vehicles and reduce the environmental impact of its most carbon‑intensive manufacturing processes.
The company has seen demand for personalized color options, where clients can choose from hundreds of Bespoke Paint and elevated palette options across its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models, more than double since FY22. JLR has also seen demand for its most exclusive Range Rover SV models double in this financial year.
Now, the UK’s largest luxury car manufacturer will more than double its capacity for Bespoke Paint and luxury elevated palette by opening new paint facilities in Castle Bromwich, West Midlands, and Nitra, Slovakia. The move will support over 17,000 additional client orders per year and make its most exclusive paint colors available for the first time across its other brands.
As part of a £41 million (approx. $59.2m) investment in new SVO facilities at Castle Bromwich in the UK, £26m(approx. $32.5m) will be injected to replace existing paint booths at the site with all‑new highly efficient state‑of‑the‑art application booths, which will be installed during 2025.
The new paint booths use amongst the latest, most energy‑efficient technology and filtration techniques to cut energy and water use and also utilize fully automated spray robots, decreasing environmental impact as well as producing a higher quality finish due to unparalleled consistency and precision.
The expansion will provide increased capacity to support growing demand from clients choosing the SV Bespoke Paint matching service, which enables clients purchasing a Range Rover SV to match to just about any color they wish, offering exceptional personalization, occasionally matched with a private jet or yacht colors. An SV Bespoke commission typically adds an average of £70,000 (approx. $87,400) on top of the £202,000 (approx. $252,300) average selling price of a Range Rover SV.
Meanwhile construction of a new £10 million (approx. $12.4m) universal paint line starts this year at Nitra in Slovakia, where Defender and Discovery brands are manufactured, which will see the addition of a new fully electric paint booth and new electric curing ovens. Investing in electric ovens marks the first step towards longer‑term ambitions to move away from gas to lower carbon and renewable energy sources to power its facilities.
The state‑of‑the‑art universal paint line will be the first of its kind in Slovakia and for JLR and will offer virtually unlimited color variations enabling full Bespoke Paint and Elevated Offer Palette capability at the plant for the first time to support the increasing demand for vehicle personalization. The move will create 120 new jobs in the region with first cars expected off the new line in 2026.
JLR is seeing a significant increase in clients wanting to personalize their vehicles, so we are preparing to expand our facilities and offer thousands more paint options across our brands, but doing so in the most efficient way possible.
Paint shops are very energy intensive, accounting for around 80% of our operational emissions, so they represent our biggest opportunity. Our long history means we have facilities with different challenges, some are newer, some much older so we need to optimize where we can, while at the same time investing for the long‑term so we can get where we need to be in ten, fifteen, twenty years' time to reach our net zero goal.
Andrea Debbane
Chief Sustainability Officer
SVO is all about offering our clients unparalleled performance, luxury and capability. That includes the most exclusive, high‑quality color finishes available. Range Rover brand clients are increasingly choosing to tailor their vehicles with more exclusive Bespoke and elevated palette paints. By increasing our capacity we can satisfy the demand growth from our Range Rover clients and also expand this service for the first time to clients of our other Brands
Jamal Hameedi
Director SVO
Due to the complex and energy intensive heating and curing processes necessary to achieve the highest quality and durability standards, paint shops are the largest contributor to automotive manufacturing emissions, accounting for 80% of operational emissions globally.