Jaguar Land Rover owners Tata to build Battery Plant in Somerset [Updated]

Tata, the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, is building a new battery plant in Somerset, investing £4 billion and creating thousands of jobs.

Update: For clarity, although the new Tata Battery Plant has been widely tipped to be in Somerset, JLR has been in touch to ask us to make it clear that the location is in the final stages of due diligence and has not yet been confirmed.

We know Jaguar is in hibernation as it reinvents itself as a maker of EVs to challenge the likes of Bentley and Porsche, and that Land Rover is planning to start delivering new EVs in the next few years. 

All the electric plans will come to nought without a battery supply, and although JLR will need to source batteries for the new Jaguar, Defender, Discovery and Range Rover EVs elsewhere in the short term, we now know they’ll have their own supply by 2026 thanks to parent company Tata.

Tata and the UK government have confirmed that Tata will build a new 40gGWh battery plant in Somerset at a cost of some £4 billion – and government help though to be around £500 million – creating thousands of new jobs at the Plant – and in the supply chain – and able to supply batteries for up to 500,000 EVs a year.

PM Rishi Sunak said:

Tata Group’s multibillion-pound investment in a new battery factory in the UK is testament to the strength of our car manufacturing industry and its skilled workers.

With the global transition to zero-emission vehicles well underway, this will help grow our economy by driving forward our lead in battery technology whilst creating as many as 4,000 jobs, and thousands more in the supply chain.