Posted on 30 Sep 2024
British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has upgraded its Halewood facility in northwest England to introduce production of battery electric models, Kallanish Power Materials reports.
The group owned by India’s Tata Motors announced a £500 million ($669.5m) investment at the 61-year-old factory, of which £250m has already been injected in its transformation. The site has been extended by 32,364 square metres to produce JLR’s medium-sized electric SUVs on the new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform.
In addition to new EV build lines, the works also include 750 autonomous robots, autonomous driver assistance system (ADAS) calibration rigs, and laser alignment technology. From next year, the factory will produce internal combustion models, in parallel with plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars.
Details on models and production capacity, however, have not been disclosed.
Halewood is set to “eventually” be JLR’s first all-electric production facility. Its gradual conversion reflects the group’s commitment to electrifying all its brands by 2030, JLR says in a statement. Carbon net zero across supply chain, products and operations is targeted by 2039.
To improve its carbon footprint, JLR plans to install 18,000 photovoltaic panels at the car factory, producing 8,600 gigawatt-hours of power – enough to meet 10% of the site’s energy consumption. The carmaker says the on-site renewable generation plus other fuel switches will avoid the emission of 40,000 tonnes/year of CO2 equivalent.
The Jaguar brand is the only one in the group to have a BEV in its current portfolio. The Land Rover brand only has hybrids and plug-in hybrid models under production. Its first all-electric is expected to enter production next year.
In future, JLR plans to source its battery needs from the planned Agratas gigafactory in Somerset, UK. Agratas is the battery unit of the Tata Group. It’s unclear where battery supply will come from until that project is up and running.
Kallanish has contacted JLR for further comment.
Source:Kallanish Power Materials
