Jaguar Land Rover accelerate investment to catch up with EV race

As the British luxury carmaker plays catch-up with rivals, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced on Wednesday that it will invest 15 billion pounds ($19 billion) over the next five years in electric cars (EVs) and will deliver a new electric Jaguar by 2025.

JLR, which is owned by Tata Motors in India, announced in early 2021 that Jaguar would be totally electric starting in 2025, but it was unable to confirm this information on Wednesday.

The automaker had declared that it would spend 2.5 billion pounds on electrification annually. The demand for automakers to electrify swiftly is increasing, particularly in China where the market is developing more quickly and there is a greater push to reduce prices.

Mercedes and BMW, two premium German rivals, have already released a number of electric vehicles. BMW alone has vowed to launch 11 new EV models in China by the end of the year.

In 2018, JLR unveiled the well-received electric I-Pace, but the company has not subsequently introduced any other zero-emission cars. The British automaker announced that its Halewood plant in northwest England would switch to producing only electric vehicles.

Order books for the new all-electric Range Rover SUV, which JLR also aims to release in 2025, will open later this year.

The new Jaguar will be the first of three new electric vehicles to be produced at the automaker's Solihull plant in central England. Although JLR declared a quarterly profit in January, the pandemic and the lack of semiconductor chips have affected them more than other major automakers because they have more clout with suppliers.

In its fiscal 2022 year ending March 31 last year, JLR sold 376,381 units, 39% below its fiscal 2018 year - the last year for which it reported a full-year profit. Earnings before interest and taxes, according to JLR, are expected to have a double-digit margin by 2026. Its most recent quarter's EBIT margin, an important indicator of profitability, was 3.7%. According to the reports, Tata, the owner of JLR, is also thinking about constructing an EV battery plant in Britain or Spain that would supply JLR.