JLR to build electrified vehicles in its central England plant making way for more aluminium consumption

Jaguar Land Rover is planning to invest significantly in building Electric vehicles in its home market to compensate for the loss due to slump in diesel sales and Brexit uncertainty.

The automaker is planning to offer an electrified option to all its upcoming models from next year as it tries to do away with diesel vehicles.  JLR will make electrified vehicles at its Castle Bromwich plant in central England. The first electrified vehicle to be rolled out of the plant will be a full-electric version of Jaguar's flagship luxury sedan, the XJ.

"The future of mobility is electric and, as a visionary British company, we are committed to making our next generation of zero-emission vehicles in the UK," CEO Ralf Speth said in a statement on Friday.

JLR has signed a deal with the workers at the Castle Bromwich factory to go from a 5-day to a 4-day working week with the same number of hours for more efficiency and productivity.

The Jaguar I-Pace crossover, the automaker's first all-electric car, is built by Magna Steyr in Austria

"We are making this investment because the ongoing Brexit uncertainty has left us with no choice, we had to act, for our employees and our business," JLR said.

The company has not disclosed the total investment amount, but said that they will start working on the existing facilities and technology in order to produce full-electric and hybrid cars side by side with diesel and gasoline vehicles.

JLR also confirmed its plans to build a new battery assembly center at Hams Hall, also in the English Midlands, which will start operation in 2020 with annual capacity for 150,000 units.

JLR called on the government to bring giga-scale battery production to the country to boost EV production. The company will partner with BMW for building its eDrive technology.  

It is to be noted that JLR is developing the next phase of its aluminium recycling strategy, having already processed more than 300,000 tonnes of scrap back into vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is testing use of recycled aluminium for use in future vehicles. As part of the next phase of its closed-loop programme, JLR is using pre-production Jaguar I-PACE electric vehicle (EV) prototypes. The batteries from these vehicles are recycled and the scrap from the vehicles is sorted and separated to remelt and recover the aluminium.