India’s Tata Group to Build $5bn EV Battery Gigafactory in UK

India's Tata Group has unveiled plans to build a $5.2bn electric vehicle (EV) battery gigafactory in the United Kingdom, aiming to power its Jaguar Land Rover production lines. This initiative delivers a significant shot in the arm for the UK auto sector, as it desperately needs domestic battery production to guarantee its survival in the upcoming EV boom.

Tata's proposed gigafactory, its first such project outside of India, is set to generate up to 4,000 jobs and aims to initially produce 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries. The UK government will incentivize the project with hefty subsidies amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds.

The UK has been trailing its continental counterparts in the race to establish battery gigafactories. Over 30 such facilities are either under construction or planned across the European Union, while the UK hosts just one minor Nissan plant, with a second in the pipeline.

According to government projections, the Tata factory's initial output will meet nearly half of the UK's expected battery demand by 2030.

This endeavor will also facilitate automakers' compliance with forthcoming post-Brexit trade regulations. These regulations, set to kick in by 2024, will require automakers to source a larger proportion of electric vehicle components locally to sidestep tariffs on UK-EU trade.

The announcement aligns with the UK's green ambitions, which include a prohibition on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 as part of its broader net-zero emissions target. This news is just the latest confirmation that EVs are the vehicles of the future.