Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) today further strengthened its test programme in the Middle East by opening a new engineering test centre in Dubai, UAE, for extreme hot weather vehicle research, development and testing.
JLR currently has five test facilities across the world – Nurburgring, Germany; Arjeplog, Sweden; Phoenix and International Falls, USA, and Dubai, UAE – and the company has been conducting hot weather testing in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region for over 12 years.
Desert temperatures typically touch 48-50 degrees celsius in the summer, and the new 11,120 sq ft facility in the Al Barsha area of Dubai, UAE offers a wide set of tests for durability, calibration and hot weather testing for heat and humidity. The new centre replaces an existing smaller facility in the Dubai Investments Park (DIP), an the engineering team here will also test powertrains, chassis, heat and ventilation systems, as well as the sand driving and off-road capability of the Terrain Response system from Land Rover.
Martyn Hollingsworth, JLR Director of Engineering Technical Services said on the occasion that the company has ambitious growth plans and has been investing in enhanced engineering capabilities since 2008, to be able to deliver new and refreshed Jaguar and Land Rover models. The new Dubai facility is four times the size of the previous one and durability and quality would be the focus of the engineering team, with rigorous environmental testing to be undertaken to ensure the vehicles would withstand the harshest of conditions.
Robin Colgan, Managing Director JLR MENA (Middle East and North Africa) added that the company was delighted at the expansion of its Middle East test facilities, and that vehicles passing tests here were certain to perform in hot weather environment. The new facility will be very important for JLR’s success as models for the MENA and European markets would be certified here before entering global production.
