The Jaguar Land Rover owner is transforming the site, which opened in 1962
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has unveiled plans for a substantial £500 million investment in the revamp of its historic Halewood factory. The car manufacturing titan is funnelling significant funds into the site, originally established in 1962, to turn it into the ‘EV factory of the future’.
As a key employer in Merseyside, the company is gearing up its plant for the production of electric vehicles. Over the past year, JLR has already invested £250m and commissioned one million hours of construction work.
The site has been expanded by 32,364 sq m to accommodate the production of JLR’s medium-sized electric luxury SUVs.
The renowned factory has been equipped with cutting-edge technology including new EV build lines, 750 autonomous robots, ADAS calibration rigs, laser alignment technology and the latest cloud-based digital plant management systems to supervise production. An additional £250m is set to be invested in the factory in the forthcoming news.
The works completed so far will facilitate the simultaneous production of internal combustion, hybrid and pure electric vehicles at Halewood. JLR aims to electrify all of its brands by 2030, with the goal of achieving carbon net zero across its supply chain, products and operations by 2039, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Ultimately, Halewood is set to become the company’s first fully electric production facility.
The enhancements made at the plant include a new body shop with capabilities to produce up to 500 vehicle bodies daily, construction of a novel automated painted body storage tower with a capacity for 600 bodies, and acquisition of 40 cutting-edge Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) to aid staff with installing high-voltage batteries.
Trevor Leeks, operations director at JLR Halewood, remarked: “For over sixty years, Halewood has been producing vehicles for global markets. I’m proud that through this investment; the hundreds of hours of transformational work; and dedication of my colleagues, JLR Halewood is setup for future generations to continue to create and deliver exceptional luxury vehicles for our clients.”
Additionally, the car manufacturer announced an ongoing investment strategy, committing £20m annually across Halewood and other sites. This investment aims to empower employees to transition careers and acquire expertise in novel systems, technologies, and processes key to automotive manufacturing and engineering’s future.
As part of this initiative, Halewood will see the launch of its new training and development centre, where personnel will receive training on vehicles at various production stages, concentrating particularly on High Voltage Training (HVT), which includes battery assembly methodologies.
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