Electric car research centre to boost UK production

AN ELECTRIC car research centre is to be built in the West Midlands as Britain’s automotive industry seeks to develop next-generation batteries in the scramble to ditch fossil fuels.

The £200m facility in Coleshill, east of Birmingham, is being opened by Britishvolt, with backing from the Californian property company Prologis.

It will research and manufacture high-performance power packs for manufacturers which could include the likes of Aston Martin.

The plant will deliver about 1.2 gigawatt hours (GWH) of batteries per year initially and is being built without backing from the taxpayer.

It comes days after Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata Motors threatened to shift battery production away from the UK if state help for building plants is not forthcoming.

Andy Street, West Midlands mayor, hailed the investment as a “seismic vote of confidence both in the future of our region and our automotive prowess”.

The UK needs about 90GWH of capacity a year to supply domestic manufacturers with enough battery packs for the industry to go allelectric and maintain its current size, according to industry estimates. Without that capacity it will have to obtain heavy batteries from abroad, something which is likely to make car production in the UK uncompetitive and result in costly tariffs.

The UK is behind many European countries in building large car battery factories. Nissan owns a 1.7GWH plant which serves the needs of its production line for the all-electric Leaf model in Sunderland. It plans another, larger plant to accommodate the electrification of more of its models.

But carmakers such as Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin, Mini, Vauxhall and smaller brands including Lotus, Bentley and Rolls-royce will all need locally made batteries.

Another plant is planned in the area at the site of Coventry Airport. It aims to roll out up to 60GWH of batteries from 2025. Britishvolt is also building a gigafactory in Blyth, Northumberland, which will produce up to 30GWH.