BRATISLAVA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Britain's largest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, opened its new plant in Nitra in western Slovakia on Thursday, the luxury car maker's first in continental Europe.

Jaguar Land Rover invested 1.4 billion euros (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) in building the car plant.

According to operation director Alexander Wortberg, the company employs 1,500 people, and by the end of next year it should have 2,800 employees.

"Total production capacity is 150,000 cars a year. The first model to be produced at the factory is the Land Rover Discovery, which will be made exclusively in Nitra," said Wortberg.

The vehicles produced in Nitra will be sent to more than 170 countries. The company is also ready to further expand its operations in Nitra.

"We can double our capacity to 300,000 cars a year if the market situation allows....However, we haven't yet adopted a decision on capacity expansion," Wortberg said.

He also said that the decision to invest in Slovakia is part of a broader strategy that was adopted before the referendum on Brexit, and the current situation doesn't affect the firm's plans in Slovakia.

"It's important to maintain an open market that is set well in order to keep conditions unchanged. A hard Brexit could cause us big problems. We have components that we import from the UK. We're getting ready for a variety of scenarios in order to make sure that their supply will be secure," Wortberg added.