Jaguar Land Rover is not recognized as a leader in state-of-the-art electric vehicles (EVs) and battery technologies. Behind closed doors, their engineers view a battery-powered fully electric Land Rover as a significant leap into primordial territory. Despite publicly generating excitement about a fully electric Range Rover several years ago, the actual existence of this mythical model remains elusive. The absence of a tangible fully electric Range Rover raises questions about the company’s EV preparedness and approach.

Jaguar, the sister brand of Land Rover, does have the iPace to showcase in the electric vehicle (EV) market. However, the iPace has not achieved significant success, and its sales are declining. In 2022, the company sold just over 7,000 units, and the downward trend has persisted into 2023. This performance solidifies EV sloth Jaguar Land Rover’s reputation as an electric vehicle laggard, as they have struggled to make a substantial impact in the EV industry.

So it’s astonishing to learn that EV sloth nee laggard Jaguar Land Rover announced that it will begin construction of a brand new battery gigafactory in England by 2026. Apparently, the company will focus on making sustainable battery cells within the mobility and energy sectors.

The official corporate announcement made yesterday was full of enthusiastic hyperbole. The construction of the new EV battery gigafactory is expected to require an investment of approximately £4 billion GBP, with £500 million being provided through taxpayer-funded subsidies. This is an example of the government working with big business to benefit the country during a cost of living crisis.

However, we all know that when government works with big business we get fascism. Fascism isn’t restricted to 1930s Italy or Germany, this JLR battery factory is fascism normalised and wrapped up as a public-private partnership. For the people. And the deal gets even better, subsidies are often never paid back.

So, EV sloth Jaguar Land Rover, that is to say, Tata Motors will also get to keep all the profits. Another concern arises when considering the purpose of gigafactories, which is to facilitate mass-scale production. In the case of Jaguar Land Rover, building a battery gigafactory seems excessive as their EV portfolio is weak, and Land Rover has yet to introduce a notable EV model.

This raises questions about the necessity and practicality of investing in a gigafactory when the demand and readiness for EV production from Jaguar Land Rover’s fleet are not substantial.

Hold on… I’m being a bit too hard on them. It should be noted that an electric Range Rover is in the works and should be showroom ready in 2024.

Expect delays.

Nonetheless, it is evident that EV sloth Jaguar Land Rover has been slow to embrace the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), earning them the reputation of an EV laggard. Their delayed entry into the EV market raises doubts about their ability to catch up and make significant progress. It remains to be seen if this battery factory can rectify the situation for JLR and effectively navigate them through the fast-moving EV landscape.