UK battles to keep Jaguar Land Rover’s planned EV production
Britain is locked in a battle to hold on to production of Jaguar Land Rover’s future range of electric vehicles, amid concerns the UK is falling behind in the race to build vital large-scale battery factories.
The automaker, which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, said it continues to “explore all options” around battery supply amid reports it could build electric cars in Slovakia.
Bloomberg reported JLR is considering buying batteries from Sweden’s Northvolt AB or China’s SVolt Energy Technology for a range of electric cars that it may assemble in Slovakia.
The carmaker remains in talks with the UK government over funding for the construction of a battery plant, or “gigafactory”, to ensure a local source of batteries.
This follows JLR’s commitment last year to make the Jaguar brand electric-only by 2025, as well as a pledge to abandon petrol vehicles entirely in the next decade. It currently has just one pure electric model, the I-Pace, built in Austria.
Jaguar Land Rover said as part of this strategy it would “retain our plant and assembly facilities in the home UK market and around the world”. The spokesperson added: “We continue to explore all options around the supply of batteries. No decisions have been made yet.”
As part of JLR’s switch to electric, the company – which employs 30,000 people in the UK – has previously said it would keep all of its main factories, located in the West Midlands.
Alongside its UK plants, JLR has manufacturing sites in Slovakia and Austria in Europe, as well as other facilities in Brazil, and Asia.
Battery factories are seen as crucial for the future prospects of the UK automotive industry as it moves away from the production of international combustion engine vehicles and embraces
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