AMTE Power and Britishvolt have announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the aim of creating an onshore manufacturing supply chain for battery components. If successful the collaboration would enable scalable production of a diverse product portfolio of lithium ion batteries, and see creation of a full cycle battery cell manufacturing plant (dubbed ‘GigaPlant’), servicing the automotive and energy storage markets.

Britishvolt chief executive Lars Carlstrom said, “Aligning our objectives with AMTE Power, who are looking to add to their current manufacturing capabilities in the UK, our ambition is to build a 30+ gigawatt hour factory with the support of the British government, creating up to 4,000 jobs in the process. Meeting Road to Zero targets and moving the UK into a low carbon economy will necessitate the unprecedented electrification of vehicles, and reliance on renewable energy will require extensive battery storage. It is costly and carbon-intensive to have lithium ion batteries imported from the Far East, and this GigaPlant would cement a solid onshore supply chain to ensure quality and eliminate future uncertainty of supply.”

AMTE Power chief executive Kevin Brundish, said, “We are delighted to be working with Britishvolt exploring the creation of a large scale manufacturing facility in the UK, and thank APC for introducing us. The recent global crisis has further highlighted the importance of having a robust onshore supply chain, and the creation of a GigaPlant would place the UK in a strong position to service automotive and energy storage markets.”

The agreement was facilitated by the Advanced Propulsion Centre, set up to speed up industrialisation of technologies which will help to realise net-zero emission vehicles.