Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced plans to invest £500m to transform one its historic factories as part of its drive to build more electric vehicles.
The Whitley-headquartered automotive giant has already spent £250m on upgrading the Halewood plant, near Liverpool, which was originally constructed in 1963 to make the Ford Anglia.
The work will see the Halewood facility being transformed to support the parallel production of electric vehicles, alongside existing combustion and hybrid models.
So far, Jaguar Land Rover has extended the site by 32,364 sqm to produce its medium-sized electric luxury SUVs on the new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform.
The historic plant has been fitted with technology including new EV build lines, 750 autonomous robots, ADAS calibration rigs, laser alignment technology for perfect part fitment and the latest cloud based digital plant management systems to oversee production.
The investment forms part of Jaguar Land Rover’s ‘Reimagine’ strategy which will see JLR electrify all its brands by 2030, with the aim of achieving carbon net zero across our supply chain, products, and operations by 2039.
Jaguar Land Rover site ‘setup for future generations’
Trevor Leeks, operations director, JLR Halewood, said: “For over 60 years, Halewood has been producing vehicles for global markets.
“I’m proud that through this investment; the hundreds of hours of transformational work; and dedication of my colleagues, JLR Halewood is setup for future generations to continue to create and deliver exceptional luxury vehicles for our clients.”
Additional transformational work to accommodate different sized electric vehicles includes:
New body shop capable of producing 500 vehicle bodies per day
1.4km of the paint shop has been modified with the expansion of ovens and conveyors to respond to increased demand for contrasting roofs
Construction of new automated painted body storage tower capable of storing 600 painted vehicle bodies
Final production line has been increased in length from 4km to 6km to accommodate battery fitment
Vehicle build stations extended to seven metres to facilitate the different proportions of the new EMA electric vehicles
40 New Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) introduced to assist employees with the fitment of high-voltage batteries
Delivered High Voltage Training to over 1,600 employees
£16m worth of viable equipment from JLR’s Castle Bromwich site, ranging from ABB robots to automated guided vehicles has been integrated for reuse at the new facility