The UK has a “massive opportunity” to develop a GBP2.7 billion ($3.5bn) chemicals industry and supply chain on the back of investing in electric vehicle battery manufacturing, according to a new study.
WMG, an academic department of the University of Warwick, said in its report released on 25 June UK companies are “well-placed to supply valuable materials needed for batteries to be built in UK”.
WMG’s Professor David Greenwood (pictured), one of the report’s authors said UK industrial strategy “identified battery development and manufacture as one of the four initial ‘grand challenges’ to coalesce industrial activity upon high growth opportunities”.
“Battery pack manufacturing for electric vehicles (EVs) will logically take place close to the point of vehicle assembly since packs are hard to transport,” Greenwood said. “This in turn implies that the battery cells which make up the packs will best be manufactured in (or close to) the UK. This could also mitigate the loss of vehicle engine production.”
However, Greenwood said for cell production to occur in the UK, supply chains of chemicals would need to be reconfigured, “since most cell production and chemicals supply is currently in Asia”. Whilst such components could be imported, “to capture the most value cell production and the related chemical and process equipment supply would need to come from UK suppliers”.
Recommendations in the report include a call for the automotive battery and chemicals industries to “work very closely”, guided by Britain’s Faraday Challenge initiative.
Details of the report are online.
Find out more about the ‘battery battle for Britain’ in a special feature in the Summer issue of BEST Magazine, out later this month. Make sure you’re subscribed to get your copy!
