American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. has started manufacturing and assembling transfer cases for Jaguar Land Rover at its Glasgow Manufacturing Facility in Scotland. Production started in August, AAM announced.
AAM and the automaker collaborated on the design of the transfer case, which is installed in the Land Rover Defender, an off-road, four-wheel drive vehicle. The automaker has been producing the Defender in various designs since 1947, and five versions are currently in production at plants in England, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, and Turkey. A new series is due to be introduced in 2013.
A transfer case, also called a transfer gearbox, is a part of the drive system for four-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles. It is linked by drive shafts to the transmission and front and rear axles, and transfers drive power from the former to the latter.
American Axle acquired the onetime Albion Automotive Ltd. operation in 1998. It is among the company's numerous overseas manufacturing operations for driveline and drivetrain systems, and related components and modules, and chassis systems. It has other plants in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and Thailand.
AAM’s domestic manufacturing plants are in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
"AAM is pleased to launch our relationship with Jaguar Land Rover in Europe, supporting its vehicle program requirements with our global engineering and manufacturing expertise," stated Steven J. Proctor, AAM’s president for Europe. "By taking a premium 4x4 light vehicle product and manufacturing it in our Glasgow, Scotland facility, AAM is bringing new jobs to the region and further diversifying our business."
