Tata chooses UK for $5b Jaguar Land Rover gigafactory

LONDON, July 19 (Reuters): India's Tata Group will build an electric vehicle battery plant in Britain to supply its Jaguar Land Rover factories, delivering a major boost for a UK car industry in need of domestic battery production to help secure its future.
The announcement marks Britain's biggest move in the car gigafactory space as it seeks to keep up with the United States and European Union in the race to develop green industries.
Tata said on Wednesday it would build its first gigafactory outside of India in Britain with an investment of 4 billion pounds ($5.2 billion), creating up to 4,000 jobs and producing an initial output of 40 gigawatt hours.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government declined to detail the financial support it had promised in order to fend off Spain, which had also lobbied to win the project. The BBC said the government would provide subsidies worth hundreds of millions of pounds to Tata.
Britain has lagged European rivals in building electric vehicle (EV) battery gigafactories, with more than 30 planned or under construction across the EU. Britain currently has one small Nissan plant and another in the works.
"This really does move the needle and acts as a massive beacon for the global car industry to say that the UK is back in business," investment minister Dominic Johnson told Reuters.
"Hopefully we're going to be returning to our peak level car production over the next five to 10 years."
The new plant is expected to be built in Somerset, south-west England, while Jaguar Land Rover's UK factories are near Birmingham, in central England, reflecting the need for heavy batteries to be built near their car plants.