4 minute read - 28th January 2025
JLR invests £41m in new SVO facilities at Castle Bromwich
JLR is investing a total of £65m in sustainably expanding its special paint facilities globally. The expansion will help meet the growing demand for its personalised luxury vehicles and reduce the environmental impact of its most carbon-intensive manufacturing processes.
The company has seen demand for personalised colour 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 elevated palettes by opening new paint facilities in Castle Bromwich and Nitra, Slovakia. The move will support over 17,000 additional client orders per year and make its most exclusive paint colours available for the first time across its other brands.
As part of a £41m investment in new SVO (Special Vehicle Operations) facilities at Castle Bromwich, £26m 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.
JLR has made a £41m investment in new SVO facilities at Castle Bromwich to meet the growing demand for personalised colour options / Picture: JLR
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The new paint booths use the latest, most energy-efficient technology and filtration techniques to cut energy and water use. They also utilise fully automated spray robots, which reduce paint waste by 30% compared to hand painting methods, decreasing environmental impact and 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. This service enables clients purchasing a Range Rover SV to match it to any colour they wish, occasionally matching it with private jet or yacht colours. An SV bespoke commission typically adds an average of £70,000 on top of the £202,000 average selling price of a Range Rover SV.
Meanwhile, construction of a new £10m universal paint line starts this year at Nitra in Slovakia, where Defender and Discovery models are manufactured. This will see the addition of a new fully electric paint booth and new electric curing ovens. Investing in electric ovens will avoid around 500 tonnes of CO2e per year and marks the first step towards longer-term ambitions to move away from gas to lower carbon and renewable energy sources to power its facilities.
JLR will more than double its capacity for bespoke paint options by opening new paint facilities in Castle Bromwich and Nitra, Slovakia / Picture: JLR
The state‑of‑the‑art universal paint line will be the first of its kind in Slovakia and for JLR. It will offer unlimited colour variations, enabling full bespoke paint and elevated offer palette capability at the plant for the first time to support the increasing demand for vehicle personalisation. The move will create 120 new jobs in the region, with the first cars expected off the new line in 2026.
A new smart oven control system has also been installed to help optimise existing operations, which automatically shuts itself down when it detects inactivity. A new heat exchanger is also being installed to recover heat from the paint shop flue gas and transfer it into the heating and cooling water production, improving system efficiency and saving around 2,250 tonnes of CO2e per year, the equivalent of using 2,200 barrels of oil. The exchanger will also save JLR around £750,000 a year.
JLR says it is focused on reducing the environmental impact of the most carbon-intensive manufacturing processes in the automotive industry / Picture: JLR
Andrea Debbane, chief sustainability officer at JLR, said: “JLR is seeing a significant increase in clients wanting to personalise 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 sustainable and 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 optimise where we can, whilst at the same time investing for the long‑term so we can get where we need to be in 10, 15, 20 years’ time to reach our net zero goal.”
Jamil Hameedi, SVO director at JLR, added: “SVO is all about offering our clients unparalleled performance, luxury and capability. That includes the most exclusive, high-quality colour finishes available. Range Rover 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.”
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.
