Carmakers in the Liverpool city region, already grappling with computer ship shortages, could also find batteries for electric vehicles harder to come by within three years. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool city region automakers Stellantis and Jaguar Land Rover could be hit by electric battery shortages within three years.
That’s the warning from Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares who claims battery production may not keep up with demand from an automotive sector which is accelerating its production of electric vehicles.
Stellantis is investing £100m to convert the Vauxhall Astra factory at Ellesmere Port to produce a new generation of electric vans. That decision, announced in 2021, has safeguarded more than 1,000 jobs at the plant which had long been under threat of closure.
Last week Stellantis secured planning consent to build a 670,000 sq ft facility at the Ellesmere Port complex in a joint venture with Stoford Properties. That is likely to see the creation of 100 new jobs.
Across the River Mersey at Halewood, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) employs around 3,700 people assembling the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque models. JLR is also investing heavily in a new range of electric vehicles. It says its Jaguar range will be all-electric by 2025 with Land Rover following by 2030.
Over the past year JLR and other automakers have lost billions of pounds in sales due to a global shortage of semiconductor computer chips. At one point in 2021 Halewood had to temporarily shut down production.
READ MORE: Losses top £450m at Jaguar Land Rover
Now Mr Tavares says battery plants in China, South Korea and Japan were already operating at full capacity to meet soaring demand adding that new investments into European plants may not be enough to prevent battery shortages as early as 2025.
He explained: “I can anticipate that we will have around 2025, 2026, a short supply of batteries, and if there is no short supply of batteries then there will be a significant dependence of the western world vis-a-vis Asia. That’s something that we can easily anticipate.
“The speed at which everybody is building manufacturing capacity for batteries is possibly on the edge to be able to support the fast-changing markets in which we are operating.”