Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) (www.jaguarlandrover.com) has begun the construction of its new National Automotive Innovation Centre at the University of Warwick.

The group is investing £150 million in the project, which will include workshops, laboratories, virtual-engineering suites and advanced power-train facilities. The 33,000m2 centre will open in the spring of 2017 and employ about 1,000 people. It will be used for design, visualisation and prototyping activities.

CEO Ralf Speth said: “The National Automotive Innovation Centre will serve as a generator of new skills and new thinking, providing a perfect collaborative environment in which to learn, research and develop the designs and technologies that will shape the vehicles and personal-mobility solutions of the future.

“As well as helping JLR create key technologies that will deliver new experiences for our customers — such as smarter, safer and more-connected cars — the centre will deliver wider benefits to the UK automotive industry. It will have a significant role inspiring the engineers of tomorrow, and it will help to develop the skills needed to ensure that we remain globally competitive.”

Meanwhile, JLR saw sales of its vehicles decline last month. The group sold 28,689 vehicles in February, compared with 30,487 in the same month of last year. Land Rover sold 24,185 vehicles, down 1,002 units, and Jaguar retailed 4,504 cars, down 796 units.

A statement issued by Tata, JLR’s parent company, said that the decline had been expected: “Against the background of growing demand for the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, this expected change in sales is largely due to the run-out of the Land Rover Freelander model and the company’s product launch plans, which will see the introduction of new models in the coming months.”

The first of these new models arrives next month with the launch of the new Jaguar XE saloon, an entry-level executive vehicle that should “herald a return to the volume market for Jaguar”, according to a spokesman.