Jaguar Land Rover doubles down on Merseyside ‘manufacturing facility of the long run’

Jaguar Land Rover is doubling its investment in a ‘factory of the future’ on Merseyside to build electric vehicles (EVs).

The UK’s largest carmaker will plough a further £250million into its Halewood plant on top of the £250million spent over the past year.

JLR, owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata Group, aims to electrify all its car brands by 2030, and last month said it would invest £18billion over five years to upgrade its factories to produce EVs.

Investment: Jaguar Land Rover will plough a further £250m into its Halewood plant on top of the £250m it has already spent over the past year

That is £3billion more than the luxury car maker originally planned to invest.

Chief executive Adrian Mardell is on a mission to catch up with larger rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz, who are aggressively developing EVs.

The revamped Halewood factory – built in 1963 to produce the Ford Anglia – will now be fitted with 750 robots and other technology to convert it into a ‘factory of the future’.

The site currently makes the Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport but will eventually produce only EVs.

There are around 4,000 people working at the site, a figure that is expected to stay steady even with the investment.

Barbara Bergmeier, executive director, 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 EVs.’

Last month JLR posted a record first quarter as revenues hit £7.3billion, up 5 per cent on the year before. Profits also surged 59 per cent to £693million.

It followed bumper annual results this year, reaping the biggest profit since 2015 on the back of record Range Rover sales – figures which were a much-needed boost for Mardell, who took over after the departure of Thierry Bollore two years ago.

At the time, JLR was grappling with the impact of chip shortages, damaging its ability to deliver vehicles even as demand has remained robust.

JLR’s owner is also making a wider EV push in the UK. Last year Tata chose Somerset ahead of a Spain as the home of its electric car battery plant.

The factory, part of Tata’s Agratas battery-supplying unit, will begin production in 2026 and create 4,000 jobs.

It will form a key part of JLR’s transition from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles.