Jaguar Land Rover to build next generation of electric cars in the Midlands - if they can expand

Dr Ralf Speth - Jaguar Land Rover CEO gave some good news last night - he wants to build their electric cars and batteries in the West Midlands. But there was a "but" and a big "but". And the but might be the factory will go abroad - Slovakia or Austria perhaps?

The firm is running out of space in the Midlands. Its factories are virtually at full capacity. There's land around its Gaydon and Whitley sites but it's green belt so they can't expand.

Remarkably - it takes three years in the UK to lay cables to bring enough power to a factory. In Slovakia they can throw a factory up and supply it will all the power needed in two years.

Last night he told Greg Clark the Business and Energy secretary Jaguar Land Rover needs government help to make this factory happen in the UK.

Tricky given that the industrial strategy is one of "laissez faire" - hands off and let the industries paddle their own canoe.

Dr Speth said JLR is the biggest car make in the UK - but they're alone and they can't do it alone.

They need help to free up land, help to bring power to factories, land to build houses for workers, test-beds for electric cars. Legislation in this country currently prevents electric autonomous cars being tested over 30 miles an hour.

In another nugget from last night Dr Speth revealed that JLR had only 48hr worth of cash left in 2008 before it was bought by Tata.

Tata approached UK government for a loan and was offered £50m loan guarantee. This, putting it mildly, is peanuts.

Ratan Tata and Lord Bhattacharyya from the Warwick Manufacturing group at Warwick University got a plane to India saw the State Bank of India and UB and got a loan of £2.5bn.