London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

UK battles to keep Jaguar Land Rover’s planned EV production

UK battles to keep Jaguar Land Rover’s planned EV production

Britain lagging behind in race to build vital large-scale and local battery factories
Britain is locked in a battle to hold on to production of Jaguar Land Rover’s future range of electric vehicles as concerns grow that the UK is falling behind in the race to build vital large-scale battery factories.

The company, which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, said it continued to “explore all options” for battery supply amid reports it could build electric cars in eastern Europe.

Bloomberg reported that JLR was considering buying batteries from Sweden’s Northvolt AB or China’s SVOLT Energy Technology for a range of electric cars that it may assemble in Slovakia.

The firm is also in talks with the UK government over funding for the construction of a battery plant, or “gigafactory”, to ensure a local source of batteries.

This follows JLR’s commitment last year to make the Jaguar brand electric-only by 2025, as well as a pledge to abandon petrol vehicles entirely in the next decade. It currently has just one pure electric model, the I-Pace, built in Austria.

The company said it would “retain our plant and assembly facilities in the home UK market and around the world” as part of its strategy. “We continue to explore all options around the supply of batteries. No decisions have been made yet,” a spokesperson said.

As part of JLR’s switch to electric, the company – which employs 30,000 people in the UK – has previously said it would keep all of its main factories located in the West Midlands.

The firm also has manufacturing sites in Slovakia and Austria and other facilities in Brazil and Asia.

Battery factories are seen as crucial for the future prospects of the UK automotive industry as it moves away from the production of international combustion engine vehicles.

The global battery supply has been dominated by Asian manufacturers – especially in China, Japan and South Korea – although Europe and the US have been racing to catch up.

Batteries are by some margin the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, but until now the development of UK factories has been sluggish.

China’s Envision is expanding a plant in Sunderland next to Nissan’s car factory, and the UK startup Britishvolt has been raising funds for a gigafactory near Blyth, Northumberland.

The UK government announced a £100m investment in Britishvolt at the start of the year as part of its automotive transformation fund. It has also held talks with six car manufacturers about building gigafactories.

Attracting other investment has proved difficult in recent years, which Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said was not helped by Brexit.

“Europe is playing catchup with Asia,” he said. “The uncertainty of Brexit and what was going to happen for five years made the UK very difficult to invest in because by definition you didn’t know what the trading conditions were going to be so you didn’t know what the longevity of the viability of manufacturing was going to be.”

Trade unions are concerned that the slow development of battery plants in the UK could move car industry jobs abroad.

Des Quinn, a Unite national officer, said: “The government needs to wake up and smell the coffee about the fact that without new gigafactories and a supply chain for electric vehicles there’s going to be mass unemployment and economic damage from 2028 onwards.”

A spokesperson at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy declined to comment on reports about JLR’s plans, but said it regularly speaks to companies in the industry.

They added: “The UK continues to be one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing thanks to a major investment programme to electrify our supply chain, create jobs and secure a competitive future for the sector.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×