Jaguar Land Rover has opted to manufacture the electric version of its Defender off-road vehicle in Slovakia over the quintessentially British car’s home turf.
The news comes just days after Tata Motors Limited (NYSE:TTM)-owned Jaguar unveiled a new £250 million test facility in Coventry, England as it braces to push ahead into the electric vehicle (EV) sphere.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced earlier this year that it would spend £4 billion to build a new EV battery factory in Somerset.
Nitra production line – Credit: Jaguar Land Rover
The Nitra facility in Slovakia has been used by Jaguar since 2018, producing combustion-engine versions of the Defender and Discovery, though the latest decision marks a blow to the UK’s aspirations for domestic EV production.
JLR invested €1.3 billion to launch the Nitra facility, a highly digitised and automated plant that was the first in Europe to use Kuka’s Pulse carrier system, giving 30% faster transfer times than conventional systems.
Built exclusively at Nitra, the new Defender has been a particular financial success story for the company.
As Jaguar’s bestselling model for last two financial years, Defender is generating 10 times the revenue that the Classic Defender was in 2015.
The original Defender, with a legacy dating back to 1948, has seen a revival in its demand, being Jaguar’s top-selling model for the past two years.
Celebrities and public figures ranging from Justin Bieber and Idris Elba to The Queen and Fidel Castro have all been seen driving one.
Now, Barbara Bergmeier, Jaguar’s executive director of industrial operations, is calling for a delay to incoming ‘rules of origin’ tariffs that could see imports from the EU attract a 10% tax.
“We would welcome a pragmatic move that would give us the chance to prepare, mainly around the battery,” she said.
Jaguar still intends to manufacture its electric Range Rover vehicles in the UK.