Jaguar Land Rover will start building its next-generation electric car at its Castle Bromwich plant in 2020, sustaining thousands of British jobs.
The British car manufacturer announced it will be building the XJ, featuring an all-electric powertrain, in the West Midlands plant, with major investment to the site planned to the tune of billions of pounds over the next few years.
“We are committed to making our next generation of zero-emission vehicles in the UK,” Jaguar Land Rover chief executive Professor Ralph Speth said.
Auto Express described the basing of production at Castle Bromwich as “invaluable” due to the experience of the some-2,700 employees who specialise in the XJ’s all aluminium construction, as well as the ease of access to the firm’s electronics manufacturing centre in Wolverhampton.
The carmaker will also begin producing batteries at Jaguar’s new centre in Hams Hall, north Warwickshire, next year, which according to Professor Speth will maintain car production in the country. The CEO said: “If battery production goes out of the UK then automotive production will go out of the UK… The battery is 40 per cent of the cost of an electric vehicle — we want to keep this kind of added value inside the UK.”
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Asked over the uncertainty of whether the UK will leave the EU with or without a deal, Speth told Auto Express that the firm had made the decision to invest, innovate, and build in Britain “for the better of society and keeping production in the UK”.
Business Secretary Greg Clark said of the decision: “Today’s announcement is a vote of confidence in the UK automotive industry — protecting thousands of skilled jobs.
“It reflects our determination for the UK to be at the forefront of the development and manufacturing of the next generation of electric vehicles.”
The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) said in May that “embracing” new technology would see the United Kingdom create new jobs in the automotive industry, with there being a projected 320,000 jobs to be added to car production in the country by 2030.
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