Jaguar Land Rover picks Somerset in the UK for multi-billion-pound car battery plant

Pedro Goncalves
·Finance Reporter, Yahoo Finance UK
Updated ·2 min read
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Jaguar Land Rover Staff members assemble Range Rover Evoque SUVs on the production line at Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood factory in Liverpool, Britain, December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Jaguar Land Rover to pick UK over Spain for giant car battery plant. Photo: Phil Noble/Reuters

The UK is set to win a major battery plant for electric vehicles as Tata Group, the parent company of Jaguar Land Rover, appears to have decided against Spain.

The boss of Jaguar Land Rover-owner Tata (TATAMOTORS.BO) is expected to fly to London next week to finalise the deal, the BBC reported.

The massive state-of-the-art factory would be located at the Gravity business park, a 635-acre "smart campus" currently under construction near the M5 motorway at Puriton.

The proposed gigafactory could potentially be the largest single building in the UK, and the deal would be the most significant car deal in the UK since the 1980s according to the Somerset Live, potentially creating up to 9,000 jobs.

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A new "British Energy Supercharger" scheme is also thought to be part of the deal. The scheme, currently under consultation, would cut the energy bills of 300 energy intensive companies, such as those making steel and batteries.

The UK government offered incentives worth £500m to help Jaguar and Land Rover set up a new electric battery “giga-factory”.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the British Chambers of Commerce’s annual conference recently that "we need to have battery making capacity in the UK". Hunt said: "All I would say is, watch this space, because we are very focused on making sure the UK gets that EV manufacturing capacity."

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Tata was considering another site in Spain and the expected decision to choose Somerset will be presented as a major achievement for the UK government.

The decision by the Indian bluechip company would give a boost to the British car industry coming days after major automakers including Vauxhall owner Stellantis and Ford warned that looming post-Brexit trade rules risked making it unviable.

Watch: £15bn investment at UK's largest motor manufacturer to enable Jaguar Land Rover to make its first British electric car

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