Our minders unlock a gate leading behind a mesh fence, and gaze into the painted bodies’ storage tower. Constructed at weekends, the new 12-storey hub replaced one built 30 years ago, which was too small for the cube and increasingly hard to service.
Advertisement – Article continues below
It can hold 600 bodies, which is the sweet spot between body assembly output and the trim line’s supply chain. Within 80 seconds, a shell can be picked up and gracefully lowered into the trim hall despatch area. “We need it connected to the broader factory landscape and made more efficient. What worked in 1995 doesn’t work in 2025,” says Ford, who previously spent nine years bedding Jaguars into Castle Bromwich.
Bodies are dropped onto a conveyor where a protective ‘puck’ is fitted, preventing any damage to hybrid batteries when a car is being jacked-up. The EMA pack – not expected to be a load-bearing part of the car, unlike in BYDs – will need similar safeguarding.
Batteries will arrive fully dressed from Tata’s plant in Bridgwater, Somerset. After quality checks they’ll be loaded onto Autonomous Mobile Robots, which will glide onto the line to be united with an EMA chassis at the battery-marriage station.
“EV batteries are so big, some in the industry need 22 fixings. And they’re so heavy that adding their weight can change the [alignment] of the body, so there’ll be a huge focus to get [slim] panel gaps,” says Ford.This feels like the pinnacle of Halewood’s parallel production: combustion engines, hybrid drivetrains and EV batteries – for two different vehicle architectures – wending their way along the same trim line. That epitomises JLR’s Reimagine strategy, the company’s strategic overhaul of its cars, technologies and factories, says Halewood’s operations director Brian Stone.
“Reimagine is about every nameplate having an electric offering by 2030, linked to [JLR’s target] of carbon neutrality in 2039. We’re taking a traditional OEM and completely pivoting into the electrified world,” Stone says.But Halewood’s boss – who started at the factory as a 16-year-old apprentice and racked up 27 years on site before stints at Solihull and running JLR’s Chinese manufacturing joint venture – thinks parallel production is the perfect hedge for an uncertain car market.
Advertisement – Article continues below