Jaguar Land Rover plans to build electric cars in Britain

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest carmarker Jaguar Land Rover said it planned to build electric cars in Britain, just two days after the government promised 390 million pounds ($484 million) of funding to support greener technologies.

"We want to build our EVs (electric vehicles) in the West Midlands, in the home of our design and engineering," Chief Executive Ralf Speth told an industry meeting on Thursday evening according to a spokeswoman.

Speth told Reuters in September it made sense to build electric batteries and cars in Britain if the conditions, including pilot testing and support from science, were right.

Any new production would be seen as a further boost to the automotive sector following the Brexit vote after Japanese carmaker Nissan said it would build two new models at the country's biggest car plant.

Jaguar Land Rover wants half of its cars to be available in an electric version by the end of the decade, after showcasing its first electric car at the Los Angeles Auto Show earlier this month.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Kate Holton)