An incredible new £4billion factory will be the largest in the UK and even bigger than a European country.
The factory being built by Jaguar Land Rover-owner Tata will manufacture electric vehicle batteries.
Tata confirmed in February of this year that battery production is set to begin in 2026, with the creation of around 4,000 jobs.
Martin Bellamy, chairman of Gravity, told BBC Radio Somerset the factory will be among the “biggest buildings in the country”.
He added that it will be around “six or seven million square feet”. This would make it larger than Vatican City (over five million square feet), the landlocked enclave in Rome, Italy.
The Somerset site will be Agratas’ – Tata Group’s global battery business – first outside India. It will be the first occupier on the site, taking around 50 percent of the land.
Agratas said by the early 2030s it will contribute almost half of the projected battery manufacturing capacity required for the UK automotive sector.
The factory will produce 40GWh of battery cells annually, enough to supply approximately 500,000 passenger vehicles.
Tom Flack, CEO of Agratas, said: “We care deeply about the communities we operate in, so it’s imperative to us that we work with, and listen to, our new neighbours as we build our factory in Somerset.”
The factory will be based on the Gravity Smart Campus, near Bridgwater on the former Royal Ordnance Factory between the villages of Puriton and Woolavington in Somerset.
Gravity is a giga-scale commercial development site with buildings and plots for lease and sale to businesses.
Martin Bellamy, chairman of Gravity said: “It’s impossible to overstate how important this is for the UK. It is the catalyst to kick-start the electric vehicle revolution in the UK.”
Councillor Bill Revans, leader of Somerset Council, said: “This is momentous for the county, its economy and for future generations. It’s about seizing an incredible opportunity to be at the heart of the UK’s green energy industry that will create thousands of highly-skilled, well-paid, green jobs.”