Automotive giant Jaguar Land Rover investing £500m at its Halewood factory in Merseyside as part of its electric transformation. Tony McDonough reports
Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is investing £500m into its factory at Halewood in Merseyside to support the transformation to electric cars.
JLR operates the Halewood factory in Merseyside where more than 3,500 workers assemble the Range Rover, Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport. The factory first opened in 1963 to produce the Ford Anglia.
Now the plant is being transformed for the electric vehicle (EV) era. This latest investment will support the parallel production of electric vehicles, alongside existing combustion and hybrid models.
With £250 million already invested, the transformation so far has involved more than 1m hours of construction work over the last 12 months.
The site has been extended by almost 350,000 sq ft to produce JLR’s medium‑sized electric luxury SUVs on the new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform.
It has been fitted with technology including new EV build lines, 750 autonomous robots, ADAS calibration rigs, laser alignment technology for perfect part fitment and the latest cloud based digital plant management systems to oversee production.
This investment is part of JLR’s commitment to its Reimagine strategy, which will see JLR electrify all its brands by 2030, with the aim of achieving carbon net zero across its supply chain, products, and operations by 2039.
Electrification is central to this strategy and Halewood has an exciting future producing ICE, PHEV and BEV models side by side before eventually becoming JLR’s first all‑electric production facility.
Barbara Bergmeier, executive director of industrial operations at JLR, said: “Halewood has been the heart and soul of JLR in the Northwest of England for well over two decades, producing vehicles such as the Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport.
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“Halewood will be our first all‑electric production facility, and it is a testament to the brilliant efforts by our teams and suppliers who have worked together to equip the plant with the technology needed to deliver our world class luxury electric vehicles.”
Additional transformational work to accommodate different sized electric vehicles includes:
- A new body shop capable of producing 500 vehicle bodies per day.
- 1.4km of the paint shop has been modified with the expansion of ovens and conveyors to respond to increased demand for contrasting roofs.
- Construction of new automated painted body storage tower capable of storing 600 painted vehicle bodies.
- Final production line has been increased in length from 4km to 6km to accommodate battery fitment.
- Vehicle build stations extended to seven metres to facilitate the different proportions of the new EMA electric vehicles.
- 40 New Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) introduced to assist employees with the fitment of high‑voltage batteries.
- Delivered High Voltage Training to over 1,600 employees.
- £16m worth of viable equipment from JLR’s Castle Bromwich site, ranging from ABB robots to automated guided vehicles has been integrated for reuse at the new facility. install 18,000 photovoltaic panels, producing 8,600 GWh of energy equating to 10% of the site’s energy consumption.