Indian automotive company Tata Motors, the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, will invest 4 billion pounds (approximately 4.61 billion euros at the current exchange rate) in a gigafactory for electric vehicle batteries in Somerset, in the southwest of the United Kingdom, as reported by the British Government in a statement on Wednesday.
Thus, the United Kingdom definitively secures the gigafactory for batteries that Spain wanted to implement in the town of Zuera, Zaragoza.
In addition, the new gigafactory of Tata Motors will create 4,000 “highly skilled” job positions and thousands more for the supply chain, meanwhile, battery production at this plant will begin in 2026.
In this regard, the plant will supply the future models of Jaguar Land Rover, such as the Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, and Jaguar, but it will also have the potential to serve other manufacturers.
In fact, the factory, which will have a capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours (GWh), will be able to supply almost half of the battery production that the United Kingdom would need by 2030.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has celebrated Tata Group’s 4 billion pounds investment, stating that it is a “testament” to the strength of the British manufacturing industry.
“We can be incredibly proud that Great Britain has been chosen as the location for Tata Group’s first gigafactory outside of India, securing our country as one of the most attractive places to build electric vehicles,” he emphasized.
On his part, the Chairman of Tata Sons, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, has ensured that their investment will bring cutting-edge technology to the British country, “helping to drive the sector’s transition to electric mobility.”
Furthermore, Chandrasekaran has expressed his gratitude to the Government for being “so close to us in making this investment possible.”
Likewise, according to various media outlets in the country, Rishi Sunak’s government is said to have offered Tata Motors assistance of up to 500 million pounds to secure the plant, although Jaguar Land Rover denied receiving any such financing offer.
The UK Government has stated in the statement that the details of its support to Tata will be published “in due course” as part of regular transparency data.
They have also emphasized that the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), launched in 2013, has committed funds of £1.4 billion to unlock private investment in new supply chains for low-emission vehicles.
