JLR to set up battery assembly or else face bottlenecks
Jaguar Land Rover will not (yet) produce battery cells but plans to set up their own battery assembly. CEO Ralf Speth told Manager Magazin that a looming shortage of batteries could hit deliveries of the I-Pace otherwise.
In the interview that was published in the print edition of Manager Magazin, CEO Speth said: “We want to bring the production of battery modules close to vehicle assembly. This is a core technology, and we must master it.” JLR thus wants to lessen dependency on external suppliers.
Like other carmakers such as Hyundai, Jaguar has been surprised by how high demand is for their first electric car, the I-Pace. Given that orders exceed the allocated production already, Speth fears they will have to face “bottlenecks” when it comes to batteries.
Demand not only comes from private consumers but also corporations. In March, Jaguar had scored a deal with Google’s self-driving subsidiary Waymo as they seek to order 20,000 I-Pace in the following two years to grow their robotaxi fleet throughout 2020.
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