Battery manufacturing start-up Britishvolt has secured £1.7 billion in funding to give a huge boost to its plans to manufacture car battery cells in north-east England from 2024.
The decision by property investor Trixtax and investment firm Abrdn to provide the money came after the UK government gave Britishvolt a smaller sum through its Automotive Transformation Fund, Britishvolt said. The company declined to say how much the government tranche was, but Autocar believes it was £100million.
“This announcement is an important step in putting the UK at the forefront of the global energy transition,” Britishvolt chairman Peter Rolton said in a statement.
Britishvolt started construction of the factory in Blyth, Northumberland, in September last year and hopes to build enough cells by 2028 to power 300,000 car battery packs a year, equivalent to 48 GWh. The first phase in 2024 is later than the company’s earlier forecast start date of 2023, but will give it the capacity to build cells with a total capacity of 11 GWh.
So far, the company has not said who will buy the cells, but the statement reported that it would be making a series of announcements “over the next few weeks” detailing various affiliations, research and development collaborations and “relationships with top-tier British motorsports “ car brands are listed”. It declined to name which brands, but Lotus will be one, Bloomberg news agency reported.
Britishvolt increased its forecast for the total workforce at the plant to 3,000 from 2,500 and estimates that an additional 5,000 will be employed in associated supply chains.
The Northumberland site is close to where Envision will build a battery plant next to the Nissan plant in Sunderland with a promised capacity of 11 GWh from 2024 and eventually to 38 GWh. The factory will supply batteries for Nissan’s planned crossover replacement for the Leaf, due in 2024.
Britishvolt has hired a number of high-profile executives in recent months to help realize its ambitious plans, including former Ford of Britain chairman Graham Hoare and former Ford of Europe product development head Joe Bakaj.
UK car lobby group SMMT has said the UK will need at least 60 GWh of battery cell production capacity in the UK by 2030 to supply up to a million electric cars. The UK government has set a date of 2030 by which to ban the sale of pure combustion engine cars, followed by 2035 for ‘considerable’ range hybrids.
A potential third battery plant in Coventry, central England, received early planning permission from local council last week. The ambitious proposal for the Coventry Airport plant estimates that it could produce 60GWh of batteries at one site alone, creating 6,000 jobs.