JLR Halewood EV Factory Transformation

Halewood was purpose-built in 1962 and started turning out Ford Anglias in 1963. JLR is spending GBP 500 million to make the same 61-year-old shed build battery-electric SUVs, and the interesting constraint is that combustion, hybrid and electric vehicles have to come down the same lines while the conversion happens.

Project Scope

The site has been extended by 32,364 square metres, about 348,400 square feet, and one package covers a 350,000 square foot body-in-white unit. The new body shop is rated at 500 vehicle bodies a day. Around 1.4 kilometres of paint shop has been reworked, with ovens and conveyors expanded to handle the demand for contrasting roofs, and a new automated painted-body storage tower holds 600 bodies. Final assembly has been lengthened from 4 kilometres to 6 kilometres purely to fit battery installation, with build stations extended to 7 metres for the proportions of JLR’s Electric Modular Architecture. There are 750 autonomous robots on site plus 40 new autonomous mobile robots helping operators place high-voltage batteries. JLR harvested GBP 16 million of still-viable equipment, ABB robots and AGVs, from its closed Castle Bromwich plant and reinstalled it here. ADAS calibration rigs and laser door-fitment measurement went in for future driver-assistance models. The energy package targets 40,000 tonnes of CO2e out of the site’s industrial footprint, with 18,000 planned PV panels rated at 8,600 MWh a year, roughly a tenth of site demand. JLR reported more than a million hours of construction work in the twelve months to September 2024, with GBP 250 million spent and GBP 250 million to follow.

Why It Matters

Converting a working plant is harder than building a new one, and the numbers here show where the difficulty actually sits. Two kilometres of extra assembly line is not a styling decision, it’s what a battery pack costs in floor space. More than 1,600 employees have completed high-voltage training, supported by a new on-site training and development centre, against a group-wide Future Skills Programme running at GBP 20 million a year. One caution for anyone tracking the job: ISG was reported as appointed on a GBP 50 million, 350,000 square foot expansion unit here and entered administration in September 2024, and no successor has been published. JLR also hasn’t dated completion, because completion is tied to the start of EMA production and that date isn’t public.

Project Team & Details