Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reportedly earmarked two UK sites for a new EV battery factory, one of them a location previously linked with Tesla.
However, a decision has yet to be made as the British firm’s parent company, Tata Motors, is currently pushing the UK government to provide financial incentives, The Telegraph reports.
If no agreement is reached, Tata has threatened to shift EV battery production to Slovakia, the report adds. But this threat has been downplayed by ministers, who have called it a “negotiating tactic”. JLR has also told Autocar this reported threat is "totally inaccurate".
The two sites on Tata’s shortlist are the Teesworks site in Redcar, Yorkshire, and the soon-to-be-built Gravity Business Park in Bridgwater, Somerset - which in 2020 was tipped as a potential location for Tesla to build a European battery production facility.
Rivian, the Amazon-backed electric truck maker, was also previously being wooed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to build a gigafactory at the Gravity site, the report added.
