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European automakers gear up for Brazilian production

Brazil is the place to be, apparently. Toyota has been investing in the South American country, as has BMW, which announced a $261 million investment in October 2012, on the heels of an Audi factory announcement in San José Chiapa. The high-end immigration is only set to continue, as Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar-Land Rover have both announced plans to set up manufacturing operations there.
Mercedes is the big news here, as its new facility will see the German manufacturer invest 170-million euros for production of its next-generation C-Class and upcoming GLA-Class. "Brazil is an important future market. With our local production we accept the challenge and take on the competition," noted Andreas Renschler, Management Board member for Production and Procurement at Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans. Production is expected to begin by 2016.
Jaguar-Land Rover, meanwhile, isn't so concrete in its plans. The news of its investment in South America comes from a job posting for a plant quality manager in Brazil that was picked up by the UK's AutoCar. "Portuguese language skills will be definite advantage" for interested candidates, according to the job listing. The want ad follows on the heels of remarks by Jaguar Land Rover's Dr. Ralph Speth, who said there are "very intensive discussions" with Brazil's government. Unlike Mercedes, there's no mention of which vehicles will be produced in South America, although AutoCar thinks the Freelander, sold in the US as the LR2, is a leading contender.

Jaguar Land Rover offers (some) detail about new Ingenium engine

Jaguar Land Rover officially announced its Ingenium family of engines with the unveiling of the 2.0-liter version in the Jaguar XE concept at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, but it kept details very thin at the time. All we knew was that the new turbocharged mills could be configured to use gasoline or diesel, and be positioned longitudinally or transversely. Months later, JLR is finally letting some more info slip about its new baby, but there are still some big questions to be answered.
For the Ingenium project, Jaguar Land Rover gave its engineers a clean sheet of paper and told them not to worry about using any previous parts or machinery. In the end, the designers came up with a family of turbocharged, aluminum-block engines based around modular, 500cc cylinders to allow it to grow or shrink as the market demanded. The layout was also made adaptable enough to incorporate hybrid drivetrains, if needed. "Being configurable and flexible are the two key strands of Ingenium's DNA because we have future-proofed our new engines from the outset," said said Ron Lee, the company's director of Powertrain Engineering.
To maximize efficiency, Jaguar promises that all versions of the Ingenium engines come with computer-controlled, variable oil pumps and water pumps to use only as much energy as needed. They also get direct injection, roller bearings for the cams and stop/start. The diesel version alone has 17 percent less internal friction than the mill it replaces, the company claims. JLR is also promising class-leading figures for Ingenium's torque and horsepower too, but it's not giving away those specs just yet.

Jaguar F-Type Coupe proves sexy can't be disguised

Jaguar's new F-Type is a pretty potent little pouncer. And while we do love a good roadster, many of us at Autoblog are perhaps more excited about the upcoming hardtop version of Jag's stylish new entry-level sports car. Why? Because even here in heavily camouflaged prototype form, the thing looks really, really good - the sleek roofline blending rather nicely into the F-Type's shapely rump, allowing for better distinction of its pronounced hips over the rear wheel wells.
Mechanically speaking, the F-Type Coupe should be identical to its droptop sibling. That means the supercharged 3.0-liter V6 and 5.0-liter V8 engine lineup should carry over unchanged, though we've heard rumors about a four-cylinder application as well. There's also talk of hotter R, R-S or R-S GT models coming down the pipeline, and based on what we've experienced in things like the XKR-S, we certainly can't deny the allure of such a model.
It's unclear exactly when Jaguar will show the production F-Type Coupe (at the Frankfurt Motor Show, perhaps?), but the car is expected to go on sale sometime in 2014. Check it out in our latest spy gallery, above.