£27m Government grant confirmed for Land Rover's LRX
Land Rover was today given a huge £27 million boost with a Government grant to produce the “smallest, lightest and most efficient” Range Rover.
The UK Government has confirmed a grant offer is be made to the Midland-based vehicle-maker for the production of an all-new car at its Halewood plant on Merseyside.
The company is due to make a final decision on the go-ahead for the project later this year.
The car would be based on Land Rover’s acclaimed LRX Concept vehicle, first shown at the Detroit Show last year, it was announced today.
Phil Popham, Land Rover managing director, said: “We welcome the Government’s support for this project, which would form a key part of our future product plans and which we very much want to put into production.”
Land Rover said the grant for the Halewood model was separate from the broader £2.3 billion automotive support package being outlined by the Government to the UK automotive sector in London today.
Although it still has to go through a number of approval gateways in the product development process before getting the final go-ahead, Land Rover has also confirmed that the new car would be a key addition to the Range Rover family of luxury vehicles.
Mr Popham added: “Our engineering feasibility study has shown that we can very successfully deliver Range Rover levels of quality, drivability and breadth of performance in a more compact, more sustainable, package.
“Feedback from the most extensive customer research we have ever undertaken also fully supports our belief that a production version of the LRX Concept would further raise the desirability of our brand and absolutely meet all those expectations.
“It would be the smallest, lightest and most efficient Range Rover that we’ve ever built. The compact size, lighter weight and sustainability-focused technologies of the LRX Concept showed how Land Rover is planning to respond to the needs of a changing world.”
Land Rover said the proposal to produce the car at Halewood would not impact on future Range Rover production at its Lode Lane site in Solihull.
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