Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed plans to construct a new vehicle plant in Slovakia, following months of negotiations with the local government. The plant will be located in the western city of Nitra and start operations in 2018.

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Jaguar Land Rover considered other locations, including in the United States and Mexcio, but ultimately went with Slovakia due to its close proximity to major suppliers as well as its logistics infrastructure. Recall that the small country is already home to plants for Kia, PSA Peugeot Citroën and the Volkswagen Group.

Approximately $1.5 billion will be spent on the plant which will eventually employ around 2,800 people directly. The plant will have an initial capacity of 150,000 units but Jaguar Land Rover sees this reaching 300,000 eventually. The automaker also builds vehicles in Brazil, China, India and, of course, the United Kingdom.

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There were no specific details on what vehicle(s) will be built at the plant. Jaguar Land Rover only states that the plant will build a “range of all-new aluminium” vehicles. It’s thought that the vehicles will be members of the next-generation Land Rover Defender family, due in 2018. It was recently reported that there would be five separate versions of the new Defender.

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