The Indian group Tata, owner of the historic Jaguar Land Rover brand in the United Kingdom for years, will invest “more than 4 billion pounds” in an electric battery factory located in the United Kingdom. The British government announced it today. This project should make it possible to create “up to 4,000 new direct jobs and thousands more in the extended supply chain”, specifies a statement from the Ministry of Enterprise.
Tata has chosen a site in Somerset, in the west of England, owned by the Salamanca Group, an investment and advisory business with roots in real estate, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The Indian giant Tata, today formalized the announcement of an investment of over 4 billion pounds in England for the construction of its European plant of reference for the production of electric batteries for cars: the new frontier of the sector, against the background of the transition towards the end of petrol and diesel vehicles. The choice of the island had been anticipated by the British media at the end of May, after a series of preliminary talks between the leaders of the Tata group and the Tory government of Rishi Sunak, which, according to rumors, had been asked to offer aid equal to £500m of relief to kick-start the initiative.
The post-Brexit Kingdom was preferred to Spain, an EU country, whose candidacy had been evaluated in recent months by the Indian company as a possible alternative. It will be one of the largest “giga-factories in Europe”, says a company statement, capable of guaranteeing about half of the entire British need for electric batteries estimated for 2030: a crucial deadline for the commitment set by the government of London to reach the goal of zero CO2 emissions in response to climate change alarms. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – who has Indian family origins – hailed today’s official announcement as an important signal “recognition of the vigor of our automotive industry and the skills of its workers”: “We must be proud – he added – of the the fact that Great Britain has been chosen by Tata Motors to build its first giga-factory outside India. Tata Group’s decision to build its new gigafactory here in the UK – its first outside India – is a huge vote of confidence in Britain.”