Vehicle production on Merseyside is set to continue, with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) confirming a major investment in its Halewood plant.
Some £500 million will be spent on the historic facility, with JLR looking to produce electric vehicles alongside existing combustion-engined and hybrid models.
The investment programme will support JLR’s ‘Reimagine’ strategy, which aims for all of its brands to be electrified by 2030.
In addition, the Reimagine plan should help JLR to achieve ‘carbon net zero’ across its supply chain and production operations by 2039.
Investing for the future
Half of the £500 million investment has already been spent on the Halewood site, with more than one million hours of construction work undertaken during the past year.
Extending the facility by 32,364 square metres, the Merseyside factory now features dedicated electric car production lines, which are supported by 750 autonomous robots.
This ‘factory of the future’ will be used to build mid‑sized luxury electric SUVs, making use of JLR’s new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform.
Other work includes the creation of a new body shop capable of producing 500 vehicle bodies every day. The final production line has also been extended from 2.5 miles to 3.7 miles to accommodate battery fitment.
JLR technology transfers
Tailoring the Halewood site to accommodate electric vehicle production has seen build stations extended in length, along with 40 new autonomous mobile robots to assist employees with fitting high‑voltage batteries.
JLR has also delivered high voltage training to more than 1,600 employees at the factory.
Following the end of combustion-powered vehicle production at JLR’s Castle Bromwich site, equipment has been transferred to Halewood.
Some £16 million worth of production technology has now moved to Merseyside, including articulated robots and automated guided vehicles.
A site for ‘world-class luxury EVs‘
Barbara Bergmeier, executive director at JLR, commented: “Halewood will be our first all-electric production facility, and it is a testament to the brilliant efforts by our teams and suppliers who have worked together to equip the plant with the technology needed to deliver our world-class luxury electric vehicles.”
First opened in October 1963 by Ford, the Halewood site was originally used to build the Anglia. This was followed by the Ford Corsair, Escort and Capri, until production shifted to the Jaguar X-Type in 2001.
More recently, Halewood has been responsible for manufacturing the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport.
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