Indian giant, Tata Group, the parent company of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced a major investment plan for a gigafactory in the United Kingdom that it hopes will produce up to 50% of its battery requirements by the end of the decade.
The news comes as a massive boon for the UK’s automotive production scene, with the company outlining a USD $5.2 billion investment into establishing a 40 gigawatt-hour production line that it hopes will come online in 2026.
It marks Tata’s first gigafactory located outside its domestic market of India, and is set to employ upward of 4000 jobs when it gets up and running in the south of England and provide Jaguar Land Rover with easy access to batteries.
The timing couldn’t be better for JLR’s subsidiaries, with Jaguar having already announced its plans to move to a 100 per cent battery-electric lineup by 2025.
The news comes just a few months after JLR announced investments totalling $19 billion into a new ‘Electric Modular Architecture’ (EMA) platform that will underpin its future EVs including an all-electric Range Rover and a brand-new four-door GT car.
“Our multi-billion pound investment will bring state-of-the-art technology to the country, helping to power the automotive sector’s transition to electric mobility, anchored by our own business, Jaguar Land Rover,” says Tata’s Chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran.
The announcement was welcomed by UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who labelled the move “a huge vote of confident in Britain.”
“This will be one of the largest ever investments in the UK automotive sector,” Sunak said, adding that “it will not only create thousands of skilled jobs for Britons around the country, but it will also strengthen our lead in the global transition to electric vehicles.”
