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A giant gigafactory is to be built in Somerset, this was revealed earlier this year, but the news came after years of wild rumors surrounding the project. For the past four years, wild speculation has swirled, involving Elon Musk and Tesla. Jeff Bezos and Rivian, as well as two other prime ministers, as efforts were made to court a battery maker in the southwest.
Ultimately, Tata, the parent company of Jaguar Land Rover, will be the company building a new £4 billion EV battery plant in the county. While Tata has yet to verify the site’s location, it is understood that it will be built on Gravity, a 616-acre “Smart Campus” just off the M5 motorway, next to the village of Puriton.
The giant factory will be “twice the length of an average battery factory” and may be one of the largest buildings in the UK in terms of size when completed. But how did we get here? Somerset Live takes you through all the twists and turns of the past four years in our timeline below.
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The planned 616-acre Gravity smart campus was first revealed in October 2019, with the programme director stating the park would be the “first of its kind” in the UK, underpinned by “environmentally-clean growth and smart data”.
Plans for the included a direct link road to junction 23 of the M5, as well as purpose-built freight and passenger rail terminals at Array.
The business park will also feature “dark fibre network connectivity, on-site low-carbon energy solutions, and water catchment services from the adjacent Huntspill River”.
Construction has already begun.
In January 2020, Tom Curtis, co-CEO of Gravity, said: “From leading start-ups of tomorrow’s generation to established multinationals and experts in complex production, this site will enable studies and advancements through knowledge sharing and leverage the region’s capacity of its leaders. “universities and colleges.
A corporate spokesperson added: “Gravity will attract guilty and fast-growing corporations related to complex manufacturing, robotics, synthetic intelligence and electric vehicles. By attracting today’s giants and tomorrow’s unicorns, there will also be significant opportunities for collaboration.
In June 2020, the UK government is reportedly urgently looking for a four-million-square-foot site to house a new Tesla gigafactory in Somerset. Gravity is one of the sites that “tries to get massive rentals,” according to an article in PropertyWeek.
CEO Elon Musk has revealed in the past that Tesla had thought about the UK before opting for Germany as a location for a gigafactory. “Brexit has made it too risky to set up a gigafactory in the UK,” he said in an interview with Auto Express in November 2019.
Amid the government’s search for a prospect for a Tesla gigafactory in the summer of 2020, Elon Musk’s personal jet landed at London Luton Airport on June 3, 2020. The plane took off the next day after 7 p. m. on the floor.
Elon Musk, an avid Twitter user, wrote on the social network that he would be “off Twitter for a while” the day before arriving in the UK.
The rumours were further strengthened in March 2021 when the UK Business Secretary subsidised Somerset’s ability to “maintain a perfect gigafactory” and showed that the government “is considering” the Somerset site.
Kwasi Kwarteng revealed that he believed Somerset “has the production capabilities and competencies to build a wonderful gigafactory,” adding that the government was “considering and reviewing” the site.
In April 2021, Tesla stepped up its lobbying efforts by hiring a new head of development and public policy in the UK.
The U. S. tech billionaire’s $70 million Gulfstream G650ER landed back in Luton on Friday, May 14, before departing on Sunday, May 16 for a mysterious visit.
Around the same time as Elon Musk’s visit, the government’s new Investment Office asked regional agencies to urgently submit 250-hectare land for a new car plant, according to The Telegraph.
A source close to the regional government reportedly told the newspaper that they had 48 hours to submit a proposal for the plant.
Rumors that Tesla would be coming to Somerset then died down — any speculation.
In August 2021, Sky News reported that Amazon-backed Rivian had “been in secret negotiations with the U. K. government for weeks” about building its first factory outside of North America at the Gravity site.
There are reports that Boris Johnson has been briefed on the potential project, but talks are still at a complex stage.
In December 2021, urgent discussions were ongoing at the highest levels in Government as ministers attempted to secure a deal with Rivian. Boris Johnson is said to have spoken directly to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about the deal.
News surfaced that a giant organization of Rivian representatives had recorded Gravity in September 2021.
The reported talks with Rivian also came to nothing as the alleged plans never got off the ground.
In June 2022, it emerged that Jaguar Land Rover was “in talks” to build a new factory in Gravity, according to the Telegraph. However, the newspaper reported that the automaker is also making expansion plans in Europe.
In May 2023, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt revealed that a deal for a new gigafactory in Somerset could be imminent. In the same month, he reported that Rishi Sunak “has done everything possible to close the deal” with Jaguar Land Rover. parent company, Tata.
In July 2023, it was demonstrated that a Tata gigafactory would be built in Somerset.
Local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger revealed to Somerset Live that work could begin “very quickly” at the Gravity site.
Although he projects employment figures in the diversity of plants from 4,000 to more than 10,000, the parliamentarian revealed that he estimates that this figure will be around 9,500 new positions, adding those within the chain of origin. He also noted that the plant first only makes car batteries, not whole vehicles, adding that there is “no reason” for its operations not to expand in the future.
The Financial Times reported that despite recent hostilities towards Chinese companies’ participation and investment in the UK, China’s AESC will be very concerned about the Somerset project.
AESC would supply the generation for the first generation of batteries to be manufactured at the gigafactory.