May 25, 2023: The UK government is reportedly close to signing a deal for Jaguar Land Rover owner, India’s Tata Motors, to build an EV battery gigafactory in the country.
The Department for Business and Trade had yet to respond when asked by Energy Storage Journal on May 25 to confirm the reports.
However, ministers have failed to dampen down speculation about the impending deal, with chancellor (finance minister) Jeremy Hunt (pictured) saying last week: “All I would say is watch this space because we are very focused on making sure the UK gets that EV manufacturing capacity.”
According to the BBC, Tata is prepared to back a gigafactory project in the English county of Somerset — rather than build the facility in Spain — with the UK reportedly offering hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies.
In February, investment firm Scale Facilitation and its lithium battery cells and research development subsidiary, Recharge Industries, finalized a deal to buy collapsed UK gigafactory developer Britishvolt.