JLR at risk of battery supply delays after Somerset factory turmoil

Still on the drawing board: a model of the proposed electric battery factory in Bridgwater, Somerset. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/AFP/Getty View image in fullscreen Still on the drawing board: a model of the proposed electric battery factory in Bridgwater, Somerset. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/AFP/Getty JLR at risk of battery supply delays after Somerset factory turmoil Supplier Agratas sacks its main building contractor on the government-backed project amid a budget mismatch Jaguar Land Rover faces the risk of delays to the first deliveries of electric car batteries from a £5.2bn government-backed factory in Somerset after construction problems. The British carmaker is planning to rely on the Agratas factory in Bridgwater, Somerset , to supply the batteries for its new electric models. Agratas and JLR are owned by the Indian industrial conglomerate Tata. The battery factory – only the second in the UK – is widely seen as a key step in the domestic car industry’s transition away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles. The UK government in April promised £380m in subsidies for the plant. However, Agratas has terminated its main construction contractor, Sir Robert McAlpine (SRM), and replaced it with another, Tonroe Group Ltd (TSL). Agratas informed SRM that its services will not be required beyond the end of the month, giving only three weeks’ notice by letter. When Tata initially announced the gigafactory in 2023 it had targeted a 2026 start date, before pushing it back to 2027. However, it is understood that the latest internal start date, of January 2028, is also likely to be missed. Agratas has set a budget of about £800m for the construction, but the actual cost is likely to exceed that by at least £500m, according to a person with knowledge of the project. Agratas is also building a gigafactory in Sanand, western India. It is thought that Agratas’s Indian management pushed for costs in the UK to match its other project. The budget mismatch has caused tensions as contractors, including SRM, tried to hit targets they saw as impossible to deliver, the person said. SRM was never under contract, but was working under a temporary arrangement, known as a letter of limited authority, for more than two years. SRM billed about £400m during that time, without ever reaching a contractual agreement. It is the second departure of a leading contractor after TClarke left in March amid reports of a “strained relationship”. The departures are likely to be noted by other companies in the supply chain, and may cause concern in government over the progress of a project it has backed heavily. The new construction contractor, TSL, a privately owned business based in Buckinghamshire, will have to get up to speed quickly with the demanding requirements for the gigafactory. These include building facilities to handle dangerous electrolyte – the liquid through which lithium ions move inside car batteries to generate electricity – as well as constructing one of the