Tata Motors‘ JLR has announced a GBP500m investment at its historic Halewood factory in the UK to build electric vehicles alongside existing combustion and hybrid models.
Originally built in 1963 to produce the Ford Anglia, Halewood is now being transformed for the electric era.
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With GB250m already spent, the project so far has involved 1m hours of construction work in the last year. The site has been extended by 32,364 sq m to produce medium sized electric luxury SUVs on the automaker’s new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform.
The plant now has new EV build lines, 750 autonomous robots, ADAS calibration rigs, laser alignment technology for part fitment and the latest cloud based digital plant management systems to oversee production.
The automaker said Halewood would build ICE, PHEV and BEV models side by side before eventually becoming JLR’s first all electric factory.
Additional upgrade work to accommodate different sized electric vehicles included:
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By GlobalData- New body shop capable of producing 500 vehicle bodies per day
- 1.4km of the paint shop modified with expansion of ovens and conveyors to respond to increased demand for contrasting roofs
- Construction of new automated painted body storage tower capable of storing 600 painted bodies
- Final production line has been increased in length from 4km to 6km to accommodate battery fitment
- Vehicle build stations extended to seven metres to facilitate the different proportions of the new EMA electric vehicles
- 40 New Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) introduced to assist employees with the fitment of high voltage batteries
- Delivered High Voltage Training to over 1,600 employees
The company transferred GBP16m of viable equipment from its Castle Bromwich body build site, ranging from ABB robots to automated guided vehicles, for reuse at Halewood.
There are plans to install 18,000 photovoltaic panels, producing 8,600 GWh of energy providing 10% of the site’s energy consumption.
Through a mix of renewables, fuel switching and energy efficiency products, JLR is aiming to remove 40,000 tonnes of CO2e from Halewood’s industrial footprint as part of its carbon net zero targets.
As part of a Future Skills Programme, the company is investing GP20m each year across all of its sites to enable employees to switch careers and gain vital skills in new systems, technologies and processes central to the future of automotive manufacturing and engineering.
Within this, JLR is opening Halewood’s new training and development centre, where workers will train on vehicles at varying stages of the production cycle, with a key focus on High Voltage Training (HVT) involving battery assembly processes. 1,600 employees have completed HVT with a further 100 to be trained.
New technology enables automated fitment of doors to vehicles, using advanced laser measurement to ensure each door’s fitment is tailored precisely to the body shell to guarantee exceptional quality of finish.
Halewood now has new Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) calibration rigs, capable of measuring ADAS responsiveness to ensure each vehicle leaves with the safest level of calibration for future autonomous driving.
With the new production lines having completed the first test builds of EMA body shells, JLR will continue to test and optimise the new machinery and technology ahead of production commencing.
