A new Jaguar Land Rover £4bn gigafactory will have the capacity to produce up to half of the batteries the UK will need for electric vehicles by 2030, the government has said.
India's Tata Group, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, announced the details of the Somerset plant on Tuesday, after a competition between the UK and Spain to host the factory. Once built, it will produce up to 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery capacity and will be one of the biggest operations of its kind in Europe. Tata said it would create up to 4,000 jobs directly, plus thousands more in the supply chain.
Tata’s decision to build the plant in the UK was described by prime minister Rishi Sunak as “testament to the strength of our car manufacturing industry and its skilled workers”. The government is understood to be providing hundreds of millions of pounds in incentives to facilitate its construction. Tata has asked for around £500mn in assistance, according to the Financial Times.
The announcement was welcomed by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), an industry trade body that had warned that the UK’s car industry faces disastrous consequences unless more battery manufacturing capacity is built. Aside from Tata’s plant, the only other major EV battery investment is the 10GWh plant being built by Chinese battery supplier Envision AESC next to Nissan’s Sunderland factory.
Tata’s investment is “a shot in the arm” for the UK’s carmakers, said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. “Producing batteries in the UK is essential if we are to anchor wider vehicle production here for the long term,” he added.
