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Jaguar Land Rover considering Mexican plant

Jaguar Land Rover has been expanding its production out of the UK and into overseas markets, and according to the latest word from Bloomberg, the British automaker is considering spending more than half a billion dollars to build a new assembly plant somewhere in Mexico. Since the Range Rover Sport and Evoque are two of the company's top sellers in the US, those would reportedly be the most likely to be manufactured at the Mexican plant, although Jaguars could follow as well. The automaker was previously said to be leaning towards a location in the Southern US, and while it could conceivably proceed with plans for both, it would be more likely to go with one or the other. State and local authorities below the Mason-Dixon line have been soliciting the business with various incentives, but lower labor costs South of the Border could prove more attractive to JLR and its parent company Tata. It wouldn't be the first, after all. Over the past month alone, General Motors committed to building the next Chevy Cruze in Mexico, Toyota did the same with the Corolla, Hyundai was reported to be considering a similar step, and Ford announced two new plants in the country amounting to a $2.5-billion investment. Luxury automakers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes have also been delving into Mexican production as well, blazing a path that JLR could potentially follow. The British automaker recently opened a plant in China and another in Brazil, while investing in additional facilities in the UK as well.

Recharge Wrap-up: Jaguar Land Rover talks EVs, Batteries should be modular

A new study out of Germany suggests adopting a modular approach to battery offerings in plug-in hybrid and extended range electric vehicles. Automakers could offer the same car with different battery sizes (and different costs, accordingly) to drivers depending on their driving ranges. This would optimize the total cost of ownership for various drivers better than the current approach. Developing a modular battery design and offering appropriate batteries for different customers "is the key for electric powertrains to meet customer expectations and become cost competitive against conventional technologies," according to the report from the Institute of Vehicle Concepts, German Aerospace Center. Learn more at Green Car Congress. Jaguar and Land Rover are looking to offer more electric driving from their vehicles. Wolfgang Ziebart, head of product development for Jaguar Land Rover, said in an interview that its hybrid system is being tweaked for more electric power and "downsized" combustion. He also said the likely target market for EVs would be second and third vehicles, rather than primary vehicles for urban driving. Within that market, Europeans look for something smaller, while American drivers lean toward larger luxury vehicles for their second car. Ziebart uses the Tesla Model S as an example of American tastes, and compares its size to that of the Jaguar XJ. Read more at Automotive News Europe. Thailand will likely approve a Volkswagen factory as early as next week. A German newspaper suggests that Thailand's Board of Investment is set to greenlight the plant, which is planned for a site near the Port of Bangkok. Thailand is a relatively large and growing auto manufacturing country, which seeks to be a major producer of eco-friendly vehicles. The country's "Eco2" program would provide incentives to Volkswagen if it builds clean cars and meets certain production targets. Read more at Reuters. Formula E has chosen Sky Deutschland for broadcasting rights in the German market. The deal includes television rights, as well as online broadcasting. Sky Deutschland has 3.8 million subscribers in Germany and Austria. Showing the races on Germany's largest pay television provider should help generate interest for the series, particularly the Berlin ePrix - the inaugural season's penultimate race - scheduled for May 30, 2015. Read more at the Formula E website.

2022 Jaguar F-Type goes V8-only as lineup gets trimmed

The sporty F-Type is the latest subject (victim?) of Jaguar's efforts to slim down and modernize its product offerings. For 2022, the coupe and convertible ditch their previous four- and six-cylinder variants in favor of a simple, all-V8 strategy.  For 2022, the entry-level F-Type will be the new P450 RWD coupe, which packs 444 horsepower and 429 lb-ft of torque from its supercharged 5.0-liter V8. Jaguar says it can hit 60 in just 4.4 seconds (with or without the now-optional R-Dynamic AWD system) on the way to a top speed of 177 mph. The 575-horsepower F-Type R will anchor the top end of the range, carrying over pretty much unchanged. If you're thinking, "Hey, at least you're not telling me Jaguar is ditching the manual transmission," that's because you missed it when they did so going into the 2021 model year overhaul. Sorry.  While the demise of the less-expensive P300 four-cylinder and P380 six-cylinder will leave some hopeful buyers in the lurch, it's not all bad news. The new P450 starts at just $71,050 — nearly $10,000 cheaper than the old P380 despite offering an additional 70 horsepower. Yeah, it's $10,000 more than the P300 was, but you're getting a heck of a lot more engine and some new standard equipment. It may not be cheaper, but it's certainly a better value — provided you care about power, that is. The range-topping F-Type R carries on essentially unchanged at $104,350.  The aforementioned 2021 update was a fairly comprehensive one, so the changes for 2022 on the cosmetic and feature fronts are few and far between, with the only noteworthy differences being the elements unique to the new P450 — badges and wheels, in other words. While options were shuffled around from last year's positioning, there's not really anything strictly new. Unlike the F-Pace and XF, the F-Type still relies on Jaguar's older Touch Pro infotainment system, which is a pretty big step down from the new Pivi Pro suite.  For those who want sweet, sweet V8 noises and sexy Jaguar styling, the 2022 F-Type will do both just fine. We'd like to see some Pivi Pro (and perhaps another SVR, pretty please), but for the time being, we'll take solace in the fact that the F-Type lives to see another model year at all. Not all Jaguars have been so lucky.