“We made the decision to keep production in the UK”
JLR has safeguarded thousands of jobs and committed to building electric vehicles in the UK with its multi-billion-pound investment at the Castle Bromwich site.
Britain’s biggest car maker has suffered a series of setbacks over the past 12 months, axing jobs and investment to offset dwindling sales, in part because of JLR’s reliance on diesel, which has fallen out of favour with consumers.
The plant at Castle Bromwich will be completely overhauled during the summer. “This facility will give us flexibility to develop EVs and hybrid vehicles alongside our diesel cars, giving customers even greater choice,” JLR’s CEO Ralf Speth said. Asked about the size of the investment JLR had made at the site, Speth added: “If you introduce new architectures it’s not millions but billions, spread over a number of years.”
The investment comes despite the UK’s uncertain future with the European Union after Brexit. Speth told Auto Express that the company had been given no assurances in the case of a no-deal Brexit and that the firm has “made the decision for the better of society and keeping production in the UK”.
JLR’s new battery assembly centre at Hams Hall will produce up to 150,000 battery packs a year, but the site will import battery cells. Speth called on the Government to encourage investors to build a new giga-scale battery production facility in the UK.
“If battery production goes out of the UK, then automotive production will go out of the UK,” Speth explained.