JLR investing £500m in Merseyside 'factory of the future'

Jaguar Land Rover is investing £500m to create a "factory of the future" for electric vehicle manufacturing in Merseyside, the Tata-owned auto giant said on Thursday.

JLR said it is hoping to transform its historic Halewood facility, originally build in 1963 to produce the Ford Anglia, to support the parallel production of electric vehicles, alongside existing combustion and hybrid models, producing 500 vehicle bodies per day.

The investment is part of the company's plans to electrify all its brands by 2030, as it works to its target of achieving carbon net zero group-wide by 2039.

Half of the money has already been invested, with more than one million hours of construction work having taken place over the past 12 months, extending the site by 32,364 square metres. The site is already producing JLR's medium‑sized electric luxury SUVs on its new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform.

The enhanced plant features new EV build lines, 750 autonomous robots, ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) calibration rigs, laser alignment technology and cloud-based digital plant management systems to oversee production, 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," said Barbara Bergmeier, executive director of industrial operations at JLR.