Jaguar Land Rover will invest £15 billion over the next five years on developing electric cars as well as autonomous-driving features as part of its drive to ditch combustion engines and catch up with rivals.
The plan includes turning JLR’s UK Halewood plant into an all-electric facility, with the first medium-sized battery Range Rover model due in 2025, the unit of Tata Motors, said on Wednesday. The announcement is the first detailed roadmap from the automaker, two years after initial moves on EV investments and the decision to reinvent Jaguar as a electric-only brand.
“We are stepping into an incredibly exciting new electric era for JLR as a modern luxury business,” JLR chief executive Adrian Mardell said in a statement. The luxury-car maker, which has struggled with supply-chain woes more than competitors, aims to be net-cash flow positive by financial year 2025 and have “double digit” earnings before interest and taxes by 2026.
JLR has limited experience making EVs, with its only fully electric vehicle – the I-Pace SUV – being built by Magna International Inc in Austria. Luxury-car makers from BMW AG to Porsche AG are ramping up their battery offerings, with Mercedes-Benz AG unveiling the roughly €200,000 Maybach EQS SUV this week at the Shanghai auto show.