JLR boosted by £500m loan to sell next generation electric vehicles

Prime Minister Theresa May has promised Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) a £500m loan to sell the next generation of electric cars around the world.

The funds, May told industry leaders on Monday, would come from the UK Export Finance alongside another £125m from commercial lenders.

She was speaking at a Department for Transport roundtable with other leading car manufacturers and industry leaders including Aston Martin, BMW, Nissan and Vauxhall as well as energy groups BP, Shell and National Grid.

The news follows JLR’s announcement earlier this month that it would manufacture a range of new electrified vehicles at its manufacturing plant in Castle Bromwich possible safeguarding more than 2,000 jobs.

As part of the plans there will be an extensive transformation of Castle Bromwich site to become the UK’s first premium electrified vehicle plant and “will be the most significant in the plant’s history”.

Also this month, the Government announced it was investing nearly £40m in infrastructure for electric vehicles including wireless charging systems as part of its aims to encourage uptake of electric vehicles – a key aim of the Road to Zero strategy.

Birmingham-based Sprint Power benefitted from this with an award of £2.4m from the government to develop wireless charging platforms for electric vehicles

Yesterday’s roundtable saw the companies launch a green mobility transition board bringing together for the first-time government, industry and environmental groups to orchestrate a large scale, nationwide move to electric vehicles.

The board plans for England to become the first country to introduce mandatory electric car charging points in all new-build homes.

In January JLR confirmed plans to bring battery and Electric Drive Unit (EDU) assembly to the Midlands with investment in new and existing facilities. The new Battery Assembly Centre at Hams Hall, operational in 2020 will have an installed capacity of 150,000 units.

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