Mumbai/London: Tata Group on Wednesday announced an investment of 4 billion pounds (about Rs 42,500 crore) in setting up a flagship factory to make batteries for Jaguar Land Rover as well as other manufacturers.
Tata Sons, owner of JLR, chose Bridgwater in Somerset in southwest England for the gigafactory over a rival location in Spain.
The gigafactory, at 40GWh, will be one of the largest in Europe and Tata’s first outside of India, the conglomerate said in a statement.
The plant, being described as the most important investment in UK automotive since Nissan arrived in the 1980s, may have got subsidies worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Neither the company nor the UK government gave details of the subsidy provided.
It will supply JLR’s future battery electric models including the Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar brands, with the potential to also supply other car manufacturers. Production at the new gigafactory is due to start in 2026.
Tata is reported to have asked for £500 million of state assistance from the UK, including subsidies for the Somerset factory’s high-energy use, a one-off grant from the automotive transformation fund, and road improvements to the site.
Details of government support to Tata Sons will be published in due course as part of regular transparency data, a UK government statement said.
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