Luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), owned by Tata Motors, is set on building its first all-electric vehicle in Austria.
The company is apparently planning to start production of an all-electric vehicle as soon as early as next year under the Jaguar brand.
It is considering leasing space in an existing factory in Austria that could make about 10,000 vehicles a year.
Sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions are among the car industry’s most pressing concerns.
With the looming European Union emission fines the Jaguar is very eager to start working on an electric vehicle for consumers.
There are now a number of car manufacturers trying to enter the electric vehicle market in a big way and some have succeeded already.
BMW has seen surging sales of its i8 and i3 petrol and electric plug-in hybrids.
Expanding its worldwide manufacturing reach
The company decided to start production in Austria as part of its plan to expand its worldwide manufacturing reach.
JLR recently opened a factory in China in a joint venture with Chinese manufacturer Chery, and it plans to open a new plant in Brazil.
There are also claims that the group could open a factory in the United States, one of its biggest markets.
JLR said: “Jaguar Land Rover continues to evaluate opportunities in a range of markets to increase our global manufacturing footprint in the future. Discussions on all manufacturing plants remain commercially confidential. No decision has been taken on future manufacturing locations”.
Tata Group bought JLR from Ford in 2008 for $2.3 billion and its workforce has since doubled to 32,000.
