JLR invests £65m in sustainable expansion of luxury paint operations

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is investing £65m in sustainably expanding its special paint facilities globally to meet growing demand for personalised luxury vehicles and reduce the environmental impact of its most carbon intensive manufacturing processes.

“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 ten, fifteen, twenty years' time to reach our net zero goal,” said Andrea Debbane, Chief Sustainability Officer.

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 luxury elevated palette, by opening new paint facilities in Castle Bromwich, West Midlands 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 £41 million investment in new SVO facilities at Castle Bromwich in the UK, £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.

The new paint booths use the latest most energy efficient technology and filtration techniques to cut energy and water use, and also utilise fully automated spray robots which reduce paint waste by 30% versus hand painting methods, decreasing environmental impact as well as 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 which enables clients purchasing a Range Rover SV to match to any colour they wish, offering the ultimate in personalisation, occasionally matched 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 £10 million universal paint line starts this year at Nitra in Slovakia, where Defender and Discovery are manufactured, which 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.

The state-of-the-art universal paint line will be the first of its kind in Slovakia, and for JLR, and will offer unlimited colour variations enabling full Bespoke Paint and Elevated Offer Palette capability at the plant for the first time to support increasing demand for vehicle personalisation. The move will create 120 new jobs in the region with 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.