Govt’s £246m bounty to boost battery tech

THE Government has revealed plans to invest in the development of state-ofthe-art battery tech for electric vehicles.

A total of £246million will be made available for firms to design, develop and manufacture the latest battery tech for use across multiple industries, including cars, over the next four years. Known as the Faraday Challenge, the programme will bring cuttingedge EV batteries to market.

First will be a £45m competition, led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), to create a virtual ‘Battery Institute’ to address the biggest challenges facing the fledgling battery industry. EPSRC CEO Prof. Philip Nelson said: “Batteries will form a cornerstone of a low-carbon economy, whether in cars, aircraft, consumer electronics, district or grid storage.”

Any new developments in battery technology will be brought to market by Innovate UK, the Government’s innovation agency. Ruth Mckernan, chief exec of Innovate UK, said: “By any scale, the Faraday Challenge is a game-changing investment in the UK and will make people around the globe take notice of what the country is doing in battery development for the automotive sector.”

“A total of £246m will be made available for firms to develop and manufacture latest battery tech”