Jaguar Land Rover gets £500 million loan guarantee from UK to develop electric cars

Jaguar Land Rover’s push to develop new electric cars has earned the carmaker a loan guarantee of £500 million ($622 million) from the UK government.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the guarantee would help Jaguar sell new EVs globally, according to The Guardian. A funding pot for the loan is said to include £500 million from UK Export Finance, and an additional £125 million comes from commercial lenders.

May discussed the loan guarantee after a meeting with automakers including Aston Martin, BMW, Nissan and Vauxhall, and energy groups such as BP, Shell, and National Grid.

The timing comes as Jaguar Land Rover recently announced its commitment to making electric cars in the UK, and as the UK looks to make bold moves to accelerate EV adoption.

After months of speculation, Jaguar recently confirmed it will make a new all-electric XJ. The carmaker will make the XJ and a new range of electric vehicles at its Castle Bromwich plant in the UK. With its announcement, JLR expressed a need to ramp up battery production domestically, as well.

It’s still unknown how many new JLR electric vehicles will be all-electric. The company announced plans years ago to bring electric powertrain options to all of its models by 2020, though it’s unclear how many of those “electrified” options will be hybrids.

But considering the direction the UK is going in — and now with the added backing of the loan guarantee — there’s plenty of hope for more all-electric vehicles from JLR.

The UK government announced Monday that it looks to put electric charging points in all new homes in the future as a way to accelerate EV adoption. The government also proposed new regulations that will ensure non-residential buildings must meet chargepoint requirements, based on the number of parking spaces available.

By 2040, new petrol and diesel cars will no longer be sold in the UK. A recent report from National Grid ESO outlined a scenario in which 35 million electric cars in the UK could become battery hubs for renewable energy.