Jaguar Land Rover sets out its EV roadmap

Automaker's internal combustion engine centre in Wolverhampton will be converted to make electric drive units and battery packs for its next generation vehicles

The UK carmaker has announced its plans for an electric future. Reuters

Jaguar Land Rover will invest £15 billion over the next five years on developing luxury electric cars, as it moves away from petrol and diesel-driven vehicles.

The plans include converting its Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) Halewood plant near Liverpool in England into an all-electric factory.

“This investment enables us to deliver to our modern luxury electric future, developing new skills, and reaffirming our commitment to be net carbon zero by 2039,” said chief executive Adrian Mardell.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) also announced that it will build the first of three new electric 4-door GT models at its Solihull plant in the West Midlands.

With a 700km range and costing upwards of £100,000 ($124,153), the new 4-door GT Jaguar will be released later this year, before going on sale in selected markets in 2024 for client deliveries in 2025.

JLR, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, first announced plans to switch to all-electric production two years ago.

At one point, it was thought that JLR would build its own battery factory in the West Midlands, but on Wednesday it revealed its current internal combustion engine centre in Wolverhampton will be converted to manufacture electric drive units and battery packs for JLR’s next generation vehicles.

It will be renamed the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre to reflect the move.

JLR lags behind its rivals in the fully-electric space — it will launch a new all-electric Range Rover SUV in 2025 and order books for that vehicle will open later this year.

Other luxury-car makers, including BMW and Porsche, have sparked up their EV production in recent years, and Mercedes Benz unveiled its Maybach EQS SUV this week at the Shanghai auto show.