The West Midlands beat off competition from India and up to 100 other sites in the race to land a new factory to build Jaguar Land Rover’s engines of the future.

As revealed in the Birmingham Post in June, the car-maker will be basing its new £355 million production facility for low-emission four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines at South Staffordshire’s i54 business park in Pendeford near Wolverhampton.

The company made the announcement during a visit by to the Land Rover plant in Solihull by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Secretary of State for Enterprise Dr Vince Cable.

Dr Cable had been involved with JLR throughout a lengthy negotiation process and the company will benefit to the tune of £10 million through the Grant for Business Investment scheme.

The Government also recently announced the i54 site will be part of one of the new enterprise zones set up to boost local growth and attract new businesses. The 73,000 sq ft factory will create around 750 jobs but is expected to support thousands more in the supply chain.

It is believed as many as 100 possible locations had originally been considered by JLR and bosses at the car-maker revealed it was by no means a given the UK would be chosen over alternative locations overseas.

JLR executive director Mike Wright said: “We went through a complex business development process and looked at a number of alternatives, both within and outside the UK.

“There were a number of geographies around the world that have a very successful track record in developing engines and power trains and it was a real option, along with emerging countries.”

Mr Wright admitted India, home of parent company Tata Motors, was the front-runner in terms of the overseas options.

“Any big investment decision like this in business is going to go through a series of differing options and we had a number of options here in the UK and we did look around outside the UK, one of which was India.

“One of the obvious locations would have been India but a host of factors goes into these decisions so it would be wrong to suggest there was one single factor.

“On the balance of all of these factors, and with the support of Tata, it was decided that, in this instance, the UK was the best option.”

In recent months it had been suggested the location was a three-horse race within the UK between the Midlands and two sites in south Wales – Newport and Cardiff.

Mr Wright said the selection of the Midlands site made sense for a number of reasons, in terms of the skills and expertise in the region, given its long association with the automotive industry, a well-established supply chain and the proximity to the firm’s three factories in Halewood, Solihull and Castle Bromwich.

The new factory will be just 22 miles from the Jaguar plant at Castle Bromwich, 34 miles from Land Rover in Solihull and 82 miles from Halewood, where the recently-launched Evoque is being built.

“We are already in contact with a whole host of suppliers who could be involved in the new engine,” said Mr Wright.

“We are obviously delighted we can connect and hopefully build a relationship with suppliers here in the UK.”

The new plant will be a key ingredient in supporting JLR’s ambitious growth over the next decade, with as many as 40 new products in the pipeline.