Jaguar Land Rover will get a 500 million pound ($670 million) state-backed loan to support the automaker in its shift to building electric vehicles.
The five-year loan will help to boost JLR’s research, development and export of battery-powered cars as part of the country’s Export Development Guarantee program, UK Export Finance said Monday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is eager to build up a local battery-making industry as the UK prepares to ban sales of new gasoline and diesel cars in 2030.
JLR plans to electrify its lineup and ditch combustion engines at Jaguar, the smaller of its two brands, by 2025. Land Rover will get its first full-electric model in 2024.
The automaker plans to invest about 2.5 billion pounds a year, expected to reach 3 billion pounds by March 2026, to increase the number of battery-electric vehicles in its model lineup under its Reimagine strategy.
JLR reported a 9 million pounds ($12 million) loss before tax for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of 439 million pounds in the same quarter last year, as global semiconductor shortages continued to hit sales.
