British battery manufacturing giant Britishvolt is partnering with logistics real estate operator Prologis to invest upwards of £200 million to build a battery cell scale-up facility that will enable the company to rapidly ramp up production-ready cells for large manufacturing volumes.
Britishvolt announced on Tuesday that it had partnered with Prologis to build its UK battery cell scale-up facilities in the West Midlands of England – a region already playing host to other battery heavyweights including Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Advanced Propulsion Centre, and UK Battery Industrialisation Centre.
The move for Britishvolt highlights the growing importance of new and clean technologies for economic growth in countries. The UK has doubled down with political, developmental, and financial support to bring electric vehicle (EV) and battery manufacturing close to home, and companies are flocking to take advantage.
Settling amidst the West Midlands’ “Battery Corridor” at Prologis Park Hams Hall, Britishvolt’s scale-up facilities will spearhead new cell formats and electro chemistries to create higher performance and production ready batteries while also helping to lower cell costs and reducing the price of electric vehicles.
“This is another important milestone for Britishvolt, UK plc and its world class automotive industry,” said Paul Franklin, property director at Britishvolt.
“The UK’s battery ecosystem is a global leader in integrated technology development and industrialisation with the Warwick Manufacturing Group, Faraday Institution, UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, and the Advanced Propulsion Centre.”
Though located four hours south of Britishvolt’s gigaplant in Northumberland, which is expected to begin operations in 2024, the new scale-up facility in the West Midlands is centrally located within England and will provide a greater value proposition for its customers.
Britishvolt secured government support earlier this year to build its EV battery gigafactory on the site of the former Blyth coal-fired power station in Northumberland.
Once operational, the Britishvolt gigafactory will produce enough batteries for over 300,000 EVs each year and create 3,000 direct highly skilled jobs and another 5,000 indirect jobs across the wider supply chain.
Similarly, the new scale-up facility in the West Midlands will also support in excess of 150 highly skilled and well-paying jobs.
One hopes, then, that the lessons on display in the UK can be picked up by Australian leaders and our own homegrown EV and battery manufacturing industry can be built up to support local jobs and investment.
“Britishvolt’s investment in the West Midlands is another seismic vote of confidence both in the future of our region and our automotive prowess,” said Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands.
“We are already the heartland of the UK’s automotive industry with the country’s biggest car manufacturer, Europe’s largest research centre of its kind, the UK’s only battery industrialisation centre, and a world-leading supply chain.
“So, it is incredibly exciting that as we accelerate our Gigafactory plans for Coventry Airport, Britishvolt are adding their expertise to our cluster.”
