The UK’s largest luxury car maker, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), says it will invest £65m ($81m) to expand its bespoke paint services in response to growing demand from wealthy customers.
The plan includes opening new paint facilities in Castle Bromwich, UK and Nitra, Slovakia.
The firm, which is owned by India’s Tata Group, says it expects to more than double its bespoke paint operation, including helping clients match the colour of exclusive Range Rover SV models to their private jets or yachts.
It follows a similar move by Rolls-Royce, which announced earlier this month that it was investing £300m to build more highly-customised versions of its cars for super-rich customers.
“Range Rover clients are increasingly choosing to tailor their vehicles with more exclusive bespoke and elevated palette paints,” said Jamal Hameedi, director of special vehicle operations at JLR.
“By increasing our capacity we can satisfy the demand growth from our Range Rover clients and… clients of our other brands.”
The company says the plan will also help it cut energy and water use as well as reduce paint waste.
Earlier this month, Rolls-Royce said it was expanding its Goodwood factory and global headquarters to meet growing demand for bespoke models.
Rolls-Royce said the plan would “also ready the manufacturing facility for the marque’s transition to an all-battery electric vehicle future”.
Last month, Jaguar unveiled a controversial new electric concept car.
Some on social media said the new Type 00 car was “exciting” and “absolutely stunning”, while others called it “rubbish” and told Jaguar’s designers to “go back to the drawing board”.
However, the carmaker suggested the reaction was exactly what it wanted as it was trying to reset the brand and revive sluggish sales.
