The UK may lag behind battery manufacturing countries like China and the US, but its reputation as an innovator of the technology is well known.
Now, the UK’s government is set to back the industry.
Great Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, is expected to outline plans in Wednesday’s UK Budget to make millions of pounds available to scientists and researchers of batteries for electric vehicle applications.
The sector is set to receive a slice of the £500million from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF).
The fund was created last year to help UK companies to drive innovation of new technologies.
It is too early to know where the funding will be allocated.
However, places like WMG at the University of Warwick is leading the way in battery research in the UK.
It has previously been supported through funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC UK Ltd).
The funding has supported manufacturing research focussed around Nissan’s Sunderland battery manufacturing plant – one of Europe’s largest full scale automotive lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities.
WMG researchers received £1million funding to help Nissan take forward that opportunity.
Last September the UK’s Prime Minster Theresa May and Philip Hammond visited WMG to discuss the UK’s role in science and technological innovation.
Last year a consortium of electric vehicle and low-carbon companies launched a UK project to drive research into lithium-ion battery technology.
https://www.bestmag.co.uk/content/industry-and-academia-team-drive-lithium-ion-research
UK-based company’s such as Faradion and Oxis Energy are at the forefront of UK battery innovation.
