Jaguar Land Rover doubles investment in Merseyside electric vehicle ‘factory of the future’

Jaguar Land Rover is doubling its investment in a ‘factory of the future’ in Merseyside to build electric vehicles (EVs).

The UK’s biggest carmaker will invest a further £250m in its Halewood plant, on top of the £250m spent last year.

JLR, owned by Indian conglomerate Tata Group, aims to electrify all its car brands by 2030, and last month said it would invest £18bn over five years to retrofit its factories to produce electric vehicles.

This is £3 billion more than the luxury carmaker had originally planned to invest.

Chief Executive Adrian Mardell is on a mission to catch up with larger rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which are aggressively developing electric vehicles.

The refurbished Halewood factory, built in 1963 to produce the Ford Anglia, will now be equipped with 750 robots and other technology to turn it into a “factory of the future”.

The plant currently makes the Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport models, but will eventually only produce electric vehicles.

Around 4,000 people work there, a figure that is expected to remain stable even with the investment.

Barbara Bergmeier, CEO, said: “Halewood will be our first all-electric production facility and is a testament to the brilliant efforts of our teams and suppliers who have worked together to equip the plant with the technology needed to deliver our world-class luxury electric vehicles.”

Last month, JLR posted a record first quarter, with revenues of £7.3bn, up 5% from the previous year. Profits also rose 59% to £693m.

This year saw excellent annual results, with the biggest profit since 2015 thanks to record Range Rover sales, figures that were a much-needed boost for Mardell, who took over following the departure of Thierry Bollore two years ago.

At the time, JLR was grappling with the impact of a chip shortage, which hurt its ability to deliver vehicles even as demand remained robust.

JLR owner Tata is also pushing harder for electric vehicles in the UK. Last year, Tata chose Somerset over Spain as the site of its EV battery plant.

The factory, part of Tata’s Agratas battery supply unit, will start production in 2026 and create 4,000 jobs.

It will form a key part of JLR’s transition from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles.