Jaguar Land Rover's second electric car will be a new version of its existing XJ sedan. The plan to make the car was announced as part of a one billion pound ($1.25 billion) investment the company will make to retool its plant in Castle Bromwich UK.
The company will develop more electric vehicles
The new electric XJ model will be developed by the same team that created the I-Pace the company's first electric car released back in 2018. At present, the I-Pace is being built on contract by a company in Austria. Jaguar Land Rover says that it will make a new range of electrical cars at the newly revamped UK plant.
The company claims that all models from 2020 onward will have either electric or hybrid option. However, the company gave no further information on what specific models it will release or even a timeline for the release of the new XJ.
Tata
Wikipedia describes Tata as follows: "Tata Motors Limited, formerly Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a part of Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate. Its products include passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, sports cars, construction equipment and military vehicles."
Jaguar Land Rover has been wholly owned by Tata since June of 2008.
The company claims to be saving UK jobs
Tata claims the investment will safeguard thousands of jobs in the UK. This may be true but the company laid off 4,500 workers earlier in the year with most of them being in the UK. Last year the company also cut 1,500 jobs. The company says the cuts had to be made because of declining demand for diesel cars, the cooling Chinese market, and fears from Brexit.
UK auto industry will be tough to turn around
Both Honda and Ford have announced they are closing plants in the UK. Even the UK vacuum magnate Dyson has decided he will build his electric car in Singapore not the UK.
The Friday announcement is a rare vote of confidence in the UK auto industry. Jaguar Land Rover posted a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars during 2018. This loss was compounded by some $3 billion spent to help the company's restructuring efforts.
Jaguar Land Rover hopes to have an EV supply chain in the UK
The company is hoping its investment will lead to building up an EV supply chain in the UK, and it is already committed to moving it battery pack and electric drive units to the UK. It has also called for a "giga-scale battery production plant" to be built in the UK. Raif Speth, CEO of the company, said: “The UK has the raw materials, scientific research in our universities and an existing supplier base to put the UK at the leading edge of mobility and job creation."
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