Coventry is leading the way in electric vehicle revolution

THE Industrial Revolution transformed our country - but is a new green revolution about to do the same as we progress through the 21st Century?

It’s something that is being mentioned more and more often and Coventry looks to be at the forefront of it.

And as we ask readers to #Do1Thing to help tackle the climate crisis, the city could be leading the way with one big thing that could help transform how we live our lives.

With long established car manufacturers in the city turning their attention to electric vehicles plus calls to house a giant factory to make electric vehicle batteries near Coventry, expect the city to be in a strong position to be leading the way in green credentials.

Climate change used to be an issue discussed only on the fringes of politics - but it’s come into the mainstream recently thanks to efforts by a number of people - including Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg - to raise awareness, as well as extreme weather across the globe.

At the last General Election in December, all political parties spoke widely of the environment on a national and local level.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson chose to launch his election campaign at the London Electric Vehicle Company headquarters just outside Coventry city centre, where he spoke not only of the firm’s green credentials, but also their economic strengths.

At the launch, Mr Johnson said: “You are making these wonderful machines here in the West Midlands, the home of the first Industrial Revolution. We are now seeing a new Industrial Revolution, a green Industrial Revolution.”

More and more major car manufacturers are looking to electric-powered vehicles to futureproof their businesses - and our main mode of transport.

In July last year, Jaguar Land Rover announced a major investment in electric vehicles at its Castle Bromwich plant. The market in electric vehicles is growing - although it still accounted for less than one per cent of vehicles sold in the UK in 2018. One of the major barriers to ownership is the high upfront cost of the vehicles, which is largely driven by the cost of the batteries. The good news is that battery costs are shrinking and are expected to be just 20 per cent of the total vehicle cost by 2025, compared to 57 per cent in 2015. Jaguar Land Rover is expected to get its Battery Assembly Centre operational this year, which is set to power the next generation of vehicles.

Dr Charles Tennant, chief engineer at Land Rover, told the Telegraph last year that production supply of batteries is crucial in the transition to electric vehicles.

The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre is a research and test manufacturing facility opening in March that’s expected to put Coventry at the heart of the development and manufacture of battery technology.

In October, the West Midlands

Combined Authority handed over an £18m grant to develop the site.

It’s expected to employ 100 people once fully operational, as well as make the wider Coventry area hugely attractive to industry investors.

The shell of the building is complete and a team of 50 staff have already been recruited.

Coventry has a tradition of making taxis stretching back 70 years - and now, brand new green taxis made right here are on the streets of cities across Europe and beyond.

The London Electric Vehicle Company, based in Ansty Park just outside of Coventry, was formerly known as the London Taxi Company, with the name change to LEVC representing a switch to electric power.

Cities including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berling, Hamburg and Oslo have the Coventry-made vehicles on their streets.

LEVC said their vehicles are a cost-effective solution for cabbies, and are helping to tackle air pollution.

You can’t have electric vehicles without the batteries to power them and there’s hopes that a factory creating these, from the raw materials right up to the finished product, could be based here in Coventry.

Both the Conservatives and Labour parties expressed support for a UK gigagfactory in their manifestos ahead of the December 12 election but neither said that Coventry or the wider area was their preferred location.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has been lobbying for a Gigafactory -which could generate more than 1,000 jobs - to be located here.

This week, he said that Coventry is “leading the race” for the Gigafactory to be located here, and said that there’s been a lot of high-level discussion going on behind the scenes to help make this a reality.