UK electric-car battery hopeful plans £200m pilot plant

BRITISHVOLT will spend over £200 million (S$345.8 million) on a pilot facility near Birmingham as the startup says it’s close to announcing another major investor for what is planned to be one of the UK’s biggest EV battery plants.

The site, to be built at Prologis's Hams Hall manufacturing and logistics park, will start making batteries by the end of next year and and employ 150 people, Britishvolt said Tuesday (May 31). The facility, converting new cell formats and chemistries into production-ready batteries, will support the smooth start of the company's £2.6 billion-pound plant in Northumberland in 2024, it said.

Britishvolt is one of a handful of startups that have announced plans to build large-scale battery plants in the UK that require cornerstone investors and offtake commitments. While the company has signed outline agreements with UK carmakers including Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings, and Lotus Cars, it is yet to gain firm commitments for the planned 38 gigawatt-hour capacity at a plant it is building near Blyth on the site of a former coal-fired power station.

Britishvolt plans to fund the 1.2 gigawatt-hour pilot facility from existing funds as well as future rounds of fundraising, with the company to announce a second "FTSE100" investor in coming weeks, the company said in an email. BLOOMBERG