Work Underway at Tata's UK EV Battery Factory Ahead of 2027 Opening

Work has begun in building what will become one of Europe’s largest EV battery factories - and the Somerset site is planned to open in 2027.

It comes more than a year after the £4billion facility, owned by Agratas  – a battery subsidiary of JLR parent Tata Group – was given approval to be built on the site of a former World War Two bomb-making factory in Bridgwater.

On Monday, the first steel frames of the main production building were erected, which Agratas hailed as a “major milestone”. All steel comes from British suppliers. Work on the next building is expected to start in the coming days, with the final foundations now being laid.

Earl Wiggins, VP Manufacturing Operations at Agratas said it was a "proud moment" for the "world-leading facility", adding: “This is a facility that will play a huge role in the EV supply chain in the UK, and growth and innovation right here in Somerset will be at its heart.”

This site milestone comes a week after the Government published its new Industrial Strategy, aimed at strengthening advanced manufacturing and supporting the development and growth of the battery sector. Industry Minister Sarah Jones MP said: “It’s great to see this milestone reached for Agratas’ gigafactory, which shows the huge growth potential for UK battery manufacturing.”

Tata’s first battery factory outside of its Indian home market will be run by subsidiary Agratas and, with an eventual capacity of 40GWh, will be one of the largest such facilities in Europe. 

That capacity alone is just under half of what the UK needs in order to cater to projected local electric vehicle production by 2030. 

Autocar understands the site will be known as Agratas South West, but it remains unclear whether that holds any implications for future Agratas facilities in other parts of the country.

The factory, which will create 4000 jobs, will initially make batteries for Tata Motors and JLR (formerly Jaguar Land Rover) – brands that sit under the Tata Group umbrella – before later expanding to produce cells for different applications, such as commercial vehicles, two-wheelers and energy storage solutions.

Tata is looking locally to fill the 4000 jobs needed for its new gigafactory. There will also be thousands more created within the supply chain, it predicts, especially as a host of support businesses and technology companies will need to set up shop nearby.

Cells made at the factory will be in the rectangular prismatic format, rather than the cylindrical shape preferred by BMW and Tesla, and Tata has already said that the cell chemistry can be adapted and changed as new advancements are made.

Tata’s vote of confidence in the UK brings reassurance after a long period of uncertainty around the British industry’s preparedness for the EV era

However, questions still remain over whether the country will be able to build enough batteries to sustain competitive levels of EV production.

The Faraday Institute forecasts that the UK will need 100GWh of capacity by 2030, rising to 200GWh by 2040. But in addition to Tata’s 40GWh Somerset site, only Nissan supplier Envision has concrete plans to ramp up UK battery production, eventually taking its battery factory in Sunderland to an output of 38GWh.

Tata’s Bridgwater site will be the biggest battery factory in Europe. LG is the only firm with plans to eclipse it over time, targeting a 70GWh expansion at its plant in Poland, which supplies packs to Audi, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Renault and Volvo.