Tata, the Indian conglomerate which owns Jaguar Land Rover, has finally confirmed it is to site its £4 billion gigafactory in Somerset — bringing about 4,000 jobs to the region.
Tata’s battery business Agratas said that it had bought land at the Gravity Smart Campus off the M5 just outside Bridgwater on the site of an old Royal Ordnance factory.
The company said in July last year that it had chosen to build its next so-called gigafactory in the UK. It secured about £500 million in UK government subsidies to do so.
In a statement, Agratas, a start-up battery production business created only last year by Tata, said it plans to begin construction of the gigafactory with an aim of first production of batteries from 2026.
“The 40GWh factory is set to be the biggest battery factory in the country and by the early 2030s will contribute almost half of the projected battery manufacturing capacity required for the UK automotive sector,” Agratas said. It confirmed JLR will be its anchor customer.
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Britain currently only has one other gigafactory, which is being developed by Nissan alongside its car plant in Sunderland.
Tom Flack, a former Ford executive who has been a rising star in Tata’s automotive interests, has been appointed as chief executive of Agratas. “Our multibillion pound investment will bring state-of-the-art technology to Somerset, helping to supercharge Britain’s transition to electric mobility whilst creating thousands of jobs in the process,” he said.
“We care deeply about the communities we operate in, so it’s imperative to us that we work with, and listen to, our new neighbours as we build our factory in Somerset.”
About 90 miles across the Bristol Channel, Tata is currently at the centre of a storm over its decision to lay off 2,800 workers at its Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales
