JLR to spend billions on Halewood electrification

Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover will invest £22.5bn by 2030 at Halewood and other factories to offer a full range of all-electric vehicles. Tony McDonough reports

Jaguar Land Rover employs more than 4,000 people at Halewood

 

Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will invest more than £20bn to convert all its models to electric by the end of the decade.

As part of its new global Reimagine strategy the company, which employs around 4,000 people at Halewood in Merseyside, says its Jaguar range will be all-electric by 2025 with Land Rover following by 2030.

Laying out his vision for the next two decades, JLR chef executive Thierry Bolloré said the  British-based business, owned by India’s Tata Motors, was committing to become a net zero carbon operation by 2039.

JLR says it will invest £2.5bn in the transformation to electric and says it currently has no plans to close any of its three UK manufacturing plants, which include two in the West Midlands as well as Halewood. It will also invest heavily in clean-hydrogen fuel-cell power.

Halewood currently assembles the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque models. These include plug-in hybrid models. Over the next few years the plant will be converted to produce electric-only cars.

By 2030, the company’s target is for all Jaguar sales to be electric-only with 60% of Land Rover models sold all-electric. Mr Bolloré said the Reimagine plan was based around an approached that prioritised “quality over volume”. Diesel models will be phased out by 2026.

Although Halewood will continue to produce hybrid models by the end of the decade it will expect to see a significant slice of the £22.5bn invested by the company in the switch to electrification by that time. JLR says it is not planning to discontinue any existing models.

A Ranger Rover Evoque rolls off the production line at JLR in Halewood

 

Similar to the rest of the automotive sector, JLR was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic which affected productions at sites in the UK and across the world. However, at the start of February it revealed its recovery was now gathering pace with third-quarter pre-tax profits of £439m – £374m higher than the second quarter.

Mr Bolloré said: “In order to realise its vision of modern luxury mobility with confidence, the company will curate closer collaboration and knowledge-sharing with Tata Group companies to enhance sustainability and reduce emissions as well as sharing best practice in next-generation technology, data and software development leadership.

“Jaguar Land Rover has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, in which Tata Sons is the largest shareholder, since 2008. We have so many ingredients from within. It is a unique opportunity.

“Others have to rely solely on external partnerships and compromise, but we have frictionless access that will allow us to lean forward with confidence and at speed. Sustainability that delivers a new benchmark in environmental and societal impact for the luxury sector is fundamental to the success of Reimagine.

“A new centralised team will be empowered to build on and accelerate pioneering innovations in materiality, engineering, manufacturing, services and circular economy investments.”

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