JAGUAR Land Rover is to invest more than £15 billion over the next five years to transform the brand into an all-electric vehicle manufacturer in the UK.
Setting out its strategy for the future, the company said its plant at Halewood, Merseyside would become an all-electric manufacturing facility, its engine centre in Wolverhampton would be renamed the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre and that the first of three modern luxury electric Jaguars will be a four-door GT to be built in Solihull.
It also confirmed that the first all-electric Range Rover will be available to order from the end of 2023 while the first of a new generation of medium-size modern luxury SUVs will be an all-electric model from the Range Rover family, launching in 2025 and built at Halewood.
The Castle Bromwich factory in Birmingham will be a base for vehicle body construction while the company itself will adopt a ‘House of Brands' approach with vehicles badged either Range Rover, Defender, Discovery or Jaguar.
JLR's chief creative officer, professor Gerry McGovern said:"Pivotal to our Reimagine strategy is the formation of the House of Brands, which is a natural evolution, with a purpose of elevating and amplifying the uniqueness of our characterful British marques.
"Our ultimate ambition is to build truly emotionally engaging experiences for our clients that, overtime, will build long-term high equity for our brands and long-term sustainability for JLR."
Details of the new models are still to be revealed but it was announced that the reimagined Jaguar will be the first modern luxury vehicle with a range of up to 430 miles and an indicative price from £100,000.
More details of the new four-door GT Jaguar will be released later this year, before going on sale in selected markets in 2024 with first deliveries in 2025.
Retraining of JLR's 40,000-strong workforce is now under way and the company - which also has production facilities across the globe including in China, Slovakia, Brazil, India and Austria - plans to be carbon neutral by 2039.
Adrian Mardell, JLR's chief executive, said: "Two years ago, we launched our Reimagine strategy and since then we have made great progress, including launching two new critically acclaimed modern luxury Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models, joining the Defender family, for which there is record demand.
"We achieved this while navigating the headwinds of the pandemic and chip shortages, and successfully ramping up production of our most profitable models to deliver profit."
He added: "I am proud to announce we are accelerating our electrification path, making one of our UK plants and our next-generation medium-size luxury SUV architecture fully electric. This investment enables us to deliver to our modern luxury electric future, developing new skills, and reaffirming our commitment to be carbon net zero."