The Tata Group, the owner of the British brand Jaguar Land Rover, has announced that it will invest £4 billion in the construction of a gigafactory of batteries for electric cars. “This is a testament to the strength of our automotive industry and its skilled workforce,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Production is scheduled to start in 2026.
The factory of the Indian giant is to be built in Somerset, in the south-west England. As a result, 4,000 new jobs will be created. According to the concern, it is to be one of the largest plants producing battery cells for electric vehicles in Europe. Production is scheduled to start in 2026.
The annual production capacity is expected to be 40 gigawatt hours (GWh), enough to power hundreds of thousands of electric cars.
Tata Group factory in Great Britain
The Guardian newspaper’s website reported that the Tata Group had been negotiating with the British government for nine months over support for the project. Britain’s energy security secretary, Grant Shapps, said he could not yet say what subsidies the factory would receive for commercial reasons.
The British newspaper, citing an official who worked on the deal, said it was in the hundreds of millions of pounds. We are talking about up to 500 million pounds.
The Tata group was also to take into account Spainas a potential location for the factory.
“The Tata Group’s multi-billion investment in a new battery factory in the UK is a testament to the strength of our automotive industry and its skilled workforce,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, quoted by The Guardian.
“As the global transition to zero-emission vehicles continues, this will help our economy grow by increasing our lead in battery technology while creating as many as 4,000 jobs and thousands more in the supply chain,” he added.
Another planned UK battery gigafactory is Chinese manufacturer Envision in Sunderland, which is being built in partnership with Nissan.
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