Putting Jaguar and Land Rover to ultimate test

Dubai: Future Jaguar and Land Rover concepts and pre-launch models will be put through the most exacting tests in Dubai following the opening of an “extreme weather” engineering facility. It is only the fifth such facility the UK carmaker operates outside of the UK, with the others being in the US (in Phoenix and International Falls), Germany (Nurburgring) and Sweden (Arjeplog).

Each vehicle for the European and Mena markets will be certified in Dubai following testing and before going into global production.

Investment on the Dubai facility — spread over 11,120 square feet and four times the size of the earlier one — came to $1.5 million and will be boosted through the opening of the Jaguar Land Rover Academy this summer.

“We had been conducting environmental testing in the region for decades from an engineering test facility located in DIP (Dubai Investments Park), where we were based from June 2010 to March 2013,” said Robin Colgan, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa markets at JLR. The high-end marques were also based at a shared Ford facility in Jebel Ali free zone for a while.

Durability

“Our extreme weather facilities are designed to test Jaguar and Land Rover products in some of the world’s most extreme weather conditions. The Dubai facility will conduct tests on pre-production (prototype) vehicles for durability, calibration and hot weather testing for heat/humidity.

“The engineering team will also test powertrains, chassis, and heat and ventilation systems and the off-road and sand driving capability of Land Rover’s Terrain Response system.”

The first prototypes for the all-new Range Rover were tested in the summer of 2010, while Jaguar’s new stunner, the F-Type, had its testing last year.

The Middle East is starting to crop up on the JLR radar other than as retail markets. There are preliminary discussions with the Saudi Arabian government for a possible manufacturing base.

A letter of intent has been signed and a detailed feasibility study is underway to determine the viability of setting up an automotive facility in the kingdom. “JLR has ambitions to expand its manufacturing footprint and increase production in markets outside of Britain, particularly China, India and Brazil,” said Colgan.

“We’ve made no secret about our ambitious plans for growth in the coming years; we will invest £2.75 billion (Dh15.5 billion) in the year to March 2014 on product creation and Capex (capital expenditure) to deliver an unprecedented 40 product actions between 2011 and 2016.”