JLR invests £500m in EV update for Halewood plant
JLR has announced that it will spend a total of £500 million upgrading its Halewood factory to produce electric cars.
The parent company of Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover said it had already spent £250m on expanding the site in England’s North West, with plans to spend the same again in the coming years.
The group does not currently build any EVs, having announced plans to axe the I-Pace earlier this year. However, next year will see the relaunch of Jaguar as an all-electric luxury brand, and the flagship Range Rover is due to get a pure EV variant later this year.
JLR said the investment would allow new BEV models built on its Electric Modular Architecture to be built alongside current ICE and PHEV models before they are phased out, leaving Halewood as its first all-electric production facility. The first test shells of the new vehicles have already been built at the site.
Barbara Bergmeier, executive director of industrial operations at JLR said: “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.”
Halewood was originally built in 1962 to produce the Ford Anglia, with Jaguar production beginning there in 2001 with the Ford-derived X-Type. Since then it has been home to several JLR models, including the best-selling Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport.
Recent investment has seen the site extended by 32,364 square metres, including extending the production line by 2km to enable battery integration for the upcoming medium‑sized electric SUVs. Vehicle build stations have also been enlarged to accommodate the new vehicles and 750 autonomous robots fitted to aid in the manufacturing process.
The site is also now home to JLR’s training and development centre, which is training staff in working on high voltage vehicles. So far, 1,600 employees have undergone the training to allow them to build the next generation EVs, with another 100 still to receive training.
The investment is part of JLR’s Reimagine strategy, which aims to electrify all of its brands by 2030 and be a carbon neutral business by 2039.
As part of that, the Halewood plant will be fitted in coming years with 18,000 solar panels, producing 8,600 GWh of energy, equating to 10% of the site’s energy consumption.
