Indian firm reportedly receiving financial support from UK government
The owner of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced plans to build a new 40GW battery cell gigafactory in Somerset.
Tata will invest more than £4bn in electric mobility and renewable energy storage for its customer base in the UK and Europe.
The Indian firm said it and its subsidiary JLR would be the anchor customers for the new factory, which will begin supplying units from 2026.
Tata chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said: “Our multi-billion pound investment will bring state-of-the-art technology to the country, helping to power the automotive sector’s transition to electric mobility, anchored by our own business, Jaguar Land Rover.
“With this strategic investment, the Tata group further strengthens its commitment to the UK, alongside our many companies operating here across technology, consumer, hospitality, steel, chemicals, and automotive.”
He thanked the British government for its work to “enable” the investment.
According to the Times, Tata asked the UK government for £500m in financial assistance for the scheme.
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said Tata’s decision to build a new gigafactory – its first outside India – was a “huge vote of confidence in Britain”.
The project is a boost for UK battery manufacturing following the collapse of Britishvolt, which had been developing a gigafactory in Northumberland.
Contractor ISG paused work on the Blyth site last August after the client ran into funding trouble.
Britishvolt was bought out of administration at the beginning of the year by Australian firm Recharge – a start-up owned and run by New York-based investment fund Scale Facilitation – and the site was expected to take six to 12 months to get up and running again.
But last month the Australian office of Scale Facilitation was raised by federal police on suspicion of alleged tax fraud.
No comments yet