The future of Jaguar Land Rover’s widely used V8 appeared to be in jeopardy with the impending closure of the Bridgend engine plant. There is good news, however; one just continues with this power source.
Jaguar (and Land Rover) will house production of its AJ-V8 at Ford’s Bridgend engine plant. That is a deal that dates back to the era when the brands were still under Ford and that was extended until this year. Although a split between Ford Bridgend and JLR was announced in 2017, it turned out to be not quite the end. Now, however, the complete closure of the factory is planned and so there is again uncertainty about the future of the delicious supercharged eight-cylinder.
This uncertainty is being discussed with the British Autocar taken away by Jaguar. A statement from Jaguar shows that production of the V8 is being transferred to its own factory in Wolverhampton. For the time being, the V8 will stay on. Another possible option for JLR would have been to buy a V8 from BMW, but that is not necessary yet. JLR and BMW already have a collaboration in the field of hybrid powertrains.
The AJ-V8 has been in its base since 1996 and has been featured in many Jaguar and Land Rover cars over the years. It came in various sizes, from 3.2-liter to (in the current second generation of the block) 5.0-liter. The latter also has a supercharger to get the most out of it; powers up to 600 hp (Jaguar XE SV Project 8). Currently, the Jaguar F-type and the Range Rover (Sport) Supercharged use this block. As mentioned, there is also a V8 version of the new Defender on the planning, which probably also has this AJ-V8 in the nose because of this new certainty for the future.