| abstract | - Halewood was originally opened by Ford Motor Company on 2 October 1963 to build the then small-saloon sized Ford Anglia. Reflecting pressure on Ford of Britain's principal plant at Dagenham, the Halewood plant was also used for assembling the Ford Corsair between the model's 1964 launch and 1969. More recently the Halewood plant has been associated with the Ford Escort - which replaced the Anglia in 1967. In the 1980s/90s Halewood was developed to become, (until 1998 along with Saarlouis), Ford's main European production facility for the Escort and derivative Ford Orion model: the Escort model was phased out by Ford in 2000. In 1997, Ford announced plans to replace the Escort with the more radically styled Ford Focus. Furthermore Ford of Europe announced European production of the Focus would only be carried out at Saarlouis, Germany and Valencia, Spain fuelling rumours that Halewood was due to be closed by Ford. However Jaguar Cars - owned at the time by Ford, were developing a new mid-sized saloon model which was loosely based on the Ford Mondeo. Ford decided production of this new model - the Jaguar X-Type, would commence at Halewood from 2001 onwards. In 2007, Halewood commenced production of the second generation Land Rover Freelander model, and a dirt track test facility has been constructed at Halewood specifically for the Freelander. In March 2008, Ford finalised a deal to sell Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors - part of the Indian based Tata Group, one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles. On 15 July 2009, Jaguar Land Rover announced that it would cease production of the X-Type at the end of 2009, with the loss of 300 jobs, and have a three-week shut down, at Halewood, between September and December of that year. On 11 March 2010, the UK Government announced a £27 million grant to be made available to Jaguar Land Rover for the production of the all-new model Range Rover Evoque, subject to the condition it is manufactured at Halewood.
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