Jaguar Electric Cars To Be Made in Britain

After displaying its latest electric car concept in the form of the I-Pace recently, British automaker Jaguar Land Rover has now announced that it wants to build electric cars in Britain. This will be a boost to the British automotive sector and is expected to generate around 10,000 jobs in the island. 

The manufacturer had earlier said that the I-Pace will go into production in Austria, but chief executive Ralf Speth has now suggested that the Tata Motors-owned company could bring further operations to Britain. 

"We want to build our EVs (electric vehicles) in the West Midlands, in the home of our design and engineering," Speth told an industry meeting on Thursday evening according to a spokeswoman.

Speth had told Reuters in September that it made sense to build electric batteries and cars in its home market if the conditions, including pilot testing and support from science, were right. 

And with three plants in Britain currently, Jaguar Land Rover’s production capabilities are well spread across northern and central England.  

This comes in after Britain had recently announced an extra ₤390 million (Rs 3,350 crore) of funding to support autonomous and green technologies in automobiles. 

The Indo-Brit manufacturer had also made it clear during the Los Angeles Auto Show earlier this month that it wants half of its cars to be electric by the end of this decade and it seems to be proactively pursuing the same.

As for India, there were speculations about JLR eyeing manufacturing at its parent company’s plant in Pune. With that, the carmaker is expected to resurrect the Mini Defender in this part of the world as electric cars still remain a far cry from the region’s preferences. Expect the latter to be imported as CBUs if the company decides to bring them on Indian shores.