AMTE Power and Britishvolt sign memorandum of understanding. Roughly a year ago, the broadsheets and then the government stoked speculation that the UK could soon be home to a multi-billion-pound automotive battery business designed to supply a new generation of electric vehicles. In light of the battering the UK new car manufacturing business has taken due to Brexit and now coronavirus, this came as welcome - if optimistic news to many. The gist of it was that government ministers were considering offering state support for a huge shared electric vehicle battery "giga factory" modelled on Tesla's enormous US battery manufacturing plant in the Nevada desert. That plant, which is known as Gigafactory 1, is set to have the biggest factory footprint in the world and already employees 3000 people. The UK project has so far been valued at around ￡1.7 billion and could lead to the generation of a further ￡2.7 billion of upstream chemical supply business (see table). However, all that depends on a successful bid that can attract enough funding. With all that in mind, the UK's first Gigafactory moved a step closer during May when AMTE Power and Britishvolt announced plans to investigate collaborating to build the UK's first full cycle battery cell GigaPlant, servicing the automotive and energy storage markets. Both parties have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) focussed on each other's complementary ambitions to create and expand an onshore manufacturing supply chain. The successful outcome of the collaboration would enable scalable production of a diverse product portfolio of lithium ion batteries to support the country's "Road to Zero" targets and ongoing transition to electrification.
展开▼
