Jaguar Land Rover today further enhanced its Middle East test programme by opening a new engineering test centre in Dubai, UAE, to conduct extreme hot weather vehicle research, development and testing.
With temperatures in the desert typically reaching 48 to 50 degrees Celsius in the summer months, the new 11,120 sq. ft. facility in the Al Barsha area of Dubai, UAE will offer a comprehensive range of tests including durability, calibration and hot weather testing for heat and humidity. The engineering team at the new centre, which replaces a smaller facility in Dubai, will also test powertrains, chassis and heat and ventilation systems, as well as the off‑road and sand driving capability of Land Rover's unique Terrain Response system.
Jaguar Land Rover has a network of five global test facilities: Nurburgring, Germany; Arjeplog, Sweden; Phoenix and International Falls, USA, and Dubai, UAE.
Jaguar Land Rover Director of Engineering Technical Services Martyn Hollingsworth said: "Jaguar Land Rover has ambitious plans for growth, and since 2008 we have been investing to enhance our engineering capability to help us deliver an unprecedented number of new and refreshed Jaguar and Land Rover models.
He continued: "Our new facility in Dubai is four times the size of the previous test centre and will enable us to enhance our testing of future products and technologies. The engineering team is focused on the quality and durability of our products and an important part of this is rigorous environmental testing of our vehicles to ensure they can withstand even the harshest conditions."
Robin Colgan, Managing Director Jaguar Land Rover MENA (Middle East and North Africa) added: "We are delighted at the expansion of Jaguar Land Rover's test facilities in the Middle East. Dubai offers some unique and very challenging environmental conditions, so if a vehicle passes our tests here we know it will perform in any hot weather environment. The new facility will be crucial to the company's continued success as every model for the European and MENA markets will be certified here in Dubai following thorough testing before going into global production."
‑ENDS‑
Notes to editors:
- Jaguar Land Rover has been conducting hot weather testing in the MENA region for more than 12 years, and the new Dubai facility replaces a smaller facility in Dubai Investments Park (DIP)
- Jaguar Land Rover has ambitious plans for sustainable growth and profitability.
- In 2012, Jaguar Land Rover sold 357,773 vehicles, up 30%.
- In the 2011/12 fiscal year, JLR achieved record profits of £1.5 billion, an increase of £392m when compared to the previous year.
- Jaguar Land Rover employs 25,000 people globally and has employed almost 9,000 people in the last two years.
- Jaguar Land Rover is the largest investor in automotive R&D and engineering in the UK.
- Jaguar Land Rover will invest £2.75bn in the year to March 2014 on product creation and CAPEX.
For more information, please visit www.newsroom.jaguarlandrover.com or contact:
Nick O'Donnell,
Global Corporate PR Manager,
Jaguar Land Rover Corporate Communications
T: +44 (0) 7825 115951
E: nodonne2@jaguarlandrover.com
For more information on Jaguar Land Rover in MENA, please contact:
Lynda McWalter and Dinesh Sandran at Weber Shandwick MENA
on +971 4 445 42 22 or Email jlr@ws‑mena.com
Visit the Jaguar & Land Rover blogs and Facebook pages:
www.jaguarmena.com and http://www.facebook.com/JaguarMENA
www.landrovermena.com and http://www.facebook.com/LandRoverMENA
Accompanying YouTube, Twitter and Flickr channels can be found at:
For Jaguar:
www.youtube.com/JaguarCarsMENA
www.twitter.com/JaguarCarsMENA
For Land Rover:
