U.K. Seeds EV Battery R&D With £120 Million

The U.K. government announces R&D funding of £120 million ($161.3 million) to help the region become a world leader in electric-vehicle-battery production.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark tells the Battery and Energy Storage conference the funding includes £80 million ($107.6 million) for the U.K.’s first automotive-battery-manufacturing development facility.

It is being created by the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership with the Warwick Manufacturing Group following a competition led by the Advanced Propulsion Center.

The facility will bring together experts from academia and industry to develop the processes required to manufacture pioneering battery technology at high volume.

Another £40 million ($53.8 million) of grant funding goes to 27 projects involving 66 organizations covering key technologies such as the development of battery materials and cell manufacturing, design and production of modules and packs including advances in thermal management and battery management systems, and recycling and recyclability of battery packs.

The grants follow Clark’s earlier announcement of the creation of the Faraday battery challenge through a multimillion-dollar research institute to drive and accelerate fundamental research in developing battery technologies.

The Faraday challenge aims to develop safe, cost-effective, durable, lighter-weight, high-performing and recyclable batteries in the U.K. to power the next generation of EVs.

“Battery technology is one of the most game-changing forms of energy innovation, and it is one of the cornerstones of our ambition, through the industrial strategy and the Faraday Challenge, to ensure that the U.K. leads the world, and reaps the economic benefits, in the global transition to a low-carbon economy,” Clark says in a statement.

This was the second critical phase of investment from the £246 million ($330.7 million) Faraday battery challenge.

Ideas funded through the competition include Calibre, which aims to create a safe, economically sustainable battery-recycling supply chain; an AGM Batteries program that aims to bring battery-cell production back to the U.K.; Delta Motorsport’s plan to develop battery modules and packs for vehicles ranging from supercars to buses to diggers; and the Batman project led by Perkins Engines to develop a new battery-storage system for heavy-duty vehicles.

The challenge is named after Michael Faraday (1791-1867), an English scientist whose discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis.