Jaguar Land Rover plans £15bn EV investments

Warwickshire-based Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to invest £15 billion over the next five years to boost its place in the electric vehicle market.

This will see its Halewood plant becoming an all-electric production facility while its next generation medium-size SUV architecture, electrified modular architecture (EMA), will now be pure-electric.

Adrian Mardell, Chief Executive Officer at JLR, told media: “Two years ago, we launched our Reimagine strategy and since then we have made great progress, including launching two new critically acclaimed modern luxury Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models, joining the Defender family, for which there is record demand.

“We achieved this while navigating the headwinds of the pandemic and chip shortages, and successfully ramping up production of our most profitable models to deliver profit in Q3.

“Today I am proud to announce we are accelerating our electrification path, making one of our UK plants and our next-generation medium-size luxury SUV architecture fully electric. This investment enables us to deliver to our modern luxury electric future, developing new skills, and reaffirming our commitment to be carbon net zero by 2039.”

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The firm also announced it will start inviting orders for the all-electric Range Rover later this year, in-line with its next generation electrification roadmap, which will launch in 2025.

While the EMA architecture will be electric only, JLA will will retain the flexible modular longitudinal architecture (MLA) on which Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are built offering internal combustion engine (ICE), HYBRID and battery electric vehicle (BEV) options, meaning the company can adapt its vehicle line-up to the needs of different global markets, with some areas further ahead in electrification.

JLR also announced that the first of three reimagined modern luxury Jaguars will be a 4-door GT built in Solihull in the West Midlands, UK. With power output more than any previous Jaguar, a range up to 700 kms (430 miles), and with indicative pricing from £100,000, new Jaguar will be built on its own unique architecture, named JEA. More details of the new 4-door GT Jaguar will be released later this year, before going on sale in selected markets in 2024, for client deliveries in 2025.

JLR also revealed its Engine Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton, UK, currently producing Ingenium internal combustion engines for its vehicles, will have an electric future producing electric drive units and battery packs for JLR’s next generation vehicles. It will be renamed the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre to reflect the move.

In positive news for the future of the historic Castle Bromwich site, JLR confirmed that its stamping facilities that prepare pressed body metalwork for JLR’s vehicles will be expanded to play a key role in the company’s electric future, by providing body work for next generation electric vehicles.

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