Jaguar Land Rover-owner Tata is investing £4bn and creating 4,000 jobs in the UK, as it confirmed it will build the country’s largest electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility.
Indian conglomerate Tata confirmed Bridgewater, Somerset, would be the site of the much-anticipated new facility.
The mammoth gigafactory, one of the largest in Europe, will initially make batteries for Jaguar Land Rover vehicles like Range Rover and the Jaguar brands.
But over the longer-term, the plan is to supply other car manufacturers as well as produce commercial energy storage.
The government has aided the building of the gigafactory with £500 million in UK government subsidies.
Subscribe to Sustainability Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest sustainability news sent straight to your inbox everyday
The government had previously announced the building of the battery factory but today more details were revealed.
Tata says battery production is set to begin there in 2026.
Agratas, Tata’s battery business, said it had bought land at the Gravity Smart campus off the M5, outside of Bridgewater
Agratas chief executive Tom Flack said: “Our multibillion-pound investment will bring state-of-the-art technology to Somerset, helping to supercharge Britain’s transition to electric mobility while creating thousands of jobs in the process.”
Along with creating 4,000 jobs, the project is expected to create thousands more in the supply chain.
Emma Rawlings, chief executive of the Somerset Chamber of Commerce, said: “This puts Somerset, its businesses and its workforce at the heart of the green revolution to switch to electric vehicles.
“Somerset businesses are already familiar with the Hinkley Point C supply chain so are well placed to provide expertise for the gigafactory.”
Agratas said by the early 2030s it will contribute nearly half of the projected battery manufacturing capacity required for the UK automotive sector.
The Tata factory will produce 40GWh of battery cells every year, which amounts to supplying around 500,000 passenger vehicles.
Last year, Jaguar Land Rover said it was developing one of the largest renewable energy storage systems in the UK from used Jaguar I-PACE car batteries.
The carmaker also unveiled a £250 million electric vehicle test facility at its engineering centre in Whitley, Coventry last year.
