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If you’d happened to do a Google news search for ‘Jaguar’ on 1 June, the day I’m writing these words, the result would have been a plethora of headlines about Jaguar Land Rover’s intention to begin manufacture of vehicles in China, yet many of the words written were a tad misleading. The impetus for the rash of stories was an interview given by Carl-Peter Forster, Tata Motors’ CEO, to the BBC in which he indicated that JLR: “…will need to manufacture at least two models in China.” What seemed to get lost in some reports was the clear message from Mr Forster that the development of a manufacturing facility in China (a market that saw 38 and 55 per cent increases, respectively, in Jaguar and Land Rover sales last year) would be in addition to, not replacing, UK production. A pretty crucial fact that, and one that means it’s a very good news story for Jaguar Land Rover rather than a bad one. Incidentally, should the plans come to fruition it wouldn’t be the fi rst time that Jaguars have been built overseas – see Last Word, page 129, for more. Of course, the lever some writers chose to get their negative spin stories rolling was the future closure of either Land Rover’s Solihull, or Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich plants at some point within the next decade. Although this has already been confi rmed some time ago, in his interview with the BBC, Mr Forster confi rmed it again, but stressed: “We are talking about having one effi cient operation rather than two ineffi cient operations.” Given JLR’s claim that when the change does come about there will be no compulsory redundancies, it’s clearly a move that makes sense. A decision on which plant will survive will be forthcoming in the next few months. In a separate interview with Autocar, Mr Forster also commented on new products in development at Jaguar, namely the development of a new ‘roadster’, and that consideration was being given to the building of another small Jaguar.