Jaguar Land Rover to spend $19B catch up in EV race

LONDON -- Jaguar Land Rover will invest 15 billion pounds ($19 billion) over the next five years in electric vehicles to catch up with rivals. 

JLR will launch a new full-electric Jaguar in 2025 as the brand shifts to selling only electric cars. The four-door GT will cost more than 100,000 pounds ($124,200), JLR said on Wednesday. The car will be built at the automaker's Solihull plant in central England.

JLR said its Halewood plant in northwest England would become an all-electric manufacturing facility. The factory will build an all-electric Range Rover SUV starting in 2025.

The company will also retool its current engine manufacturing factory in Wolverhampton to produce electric drive units and assemble battery packs. In future JLR will be the main customer for battery cells from a new plant that its owner Tata Motors is considering building in Spain or Britain, CEO Adrian Mardell said.

JLR will also retain the metal stamping facilities at its Castle Bromwich site, although the carmaker said it "continues to explore options" for the rest of the facility. JLR currently makes Jaguar sedans as well as the F-Type sports car at Castle Bromwich.

JLR previously said it would invest 2.5 billion pounds a year on electrification.

The pressure on automakers to electrify quickly is picking up, especially in China where the competition is moving faster and the pressure to cut prices is getting more intense.

JLR launched its well received full-electric I-Pace in 2018, but has since not launched any other zero-emission models. German rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW have already rolled out a number of electric models.

JLR reported a quarterly profit in January, but has been hit harder than other major carmakers by the pandemic and the semiconductor chip shortage - as larger rivals have greater leverage on suppliers.

In its fiscal 2022 year ending March 31 last year, JLR sold 376,381 units, 39 percent below its fiscal 2018 year -- the last year for which it reported a full-year profit.

On Wednesday, JLR said it was targeting a double-digit margin for earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by 2026. Its last quarterly EBIT margin, a key measure of profitability, was 3.7 percent.

CEO Mardell said the company aims to be net-cash flow positive by financial year 2025 and have "double digit" earnings before interest and taxes by 2026.

Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report