Battery company plans new £1 billion gigafactory

UK startup Volklec is to manufacture advanced lithium-ion batteries in the UK after reaching agreement with China’s Far East Battery (FEB) to use its technology for the battery production. This move is part of broader its strategic roadmap which would see Volklec eventually developing a dedicated 10 GWh gigafactory, representing an investment of £1 billion, and leading to the creation of 1000 jobs by the end of the decade, the company said.

Volklec’s initial production is set to begin, during 2025, at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), located in Coventry. The company says that two specifications of advanced lithium-ion cylindrical battery cells will be produced. The first battery will serve the ‘broad e-mobility and energy storage sector.’ This will be followed by the launch of an ‘innovative power cell’ primarily for the high value manufacturing sector,’ which includes automotive, aerospace and marine. 

The company will make use of UKBIC’s 100MWh line to produce the energy cells, while an additional 1GWh production line will be installed by the end of 2026 to produce the power cell. As well as supplying its technology, FEB will provide a team of specialists to ensure a high yield, high quality manufacturing line at the UKBIC line. 

UKBIC, opened in 2021, and part funded by local partnership is the UK’s national manufacturing battery development facility, providing manufacturing scale-up and skills for the battery sector. UKBIC was established with an initial investment of £130 million, an additional £74 million has been committed by UK Research and Innovation to enhance the facility by installing a new pilot line to bridge the gap between UKBIC’s larger scale offering and small-scale demonstrators. Volklec has backing from Frontive Group, which invests across a number of areas including energy transition. 

This development at Volklec is positive news for the UK, following the collapse of UK battery start-up Britishvolt during 2023. The company, backed by the UK government, had planned a £3.8bn gigafactory for Blyth, Northumberland.

A report from the Faraday Institution last year said that by 2030, the UK will need the equivalent of six gigafactories (large, high volume battery manufacturing facilities) each producing 20 GWh per year of batteries. By 2040, the demand is expected to rise to the equivalent of 10 such gigafactories - or a smaller number of higher capacity sites, the report said. Currently the UK's gigafactory infrastructure is limited to the AESC plant in Sunderland, where a second digafactory is due to open this year, and the under-construction Agratas site in Somerset.

Executive Director of Volklec is Phil Popham, who has run operations at Jaguar Land Rover globally and also served as CEO of Lotus Cars. “There is an urgent need for new independent manufactures to secure the battery supply chain in the UK. There is no greater transformation today than the electric revolution in transport and mobility, and the British start-up scene is thriving from motorsport to heavy duty off-highway and most things in between. But there is a substantial gap in the supply chain. The UK is particularly strong in the specialist and high-performance sectors which need surety of supply with quality and reliability. Our mission is to help these innovators thrive,” said Popham.

Further reading:

• Can the UK meet electric vehicle battery demands? experts discuss

• Lithium-ion battery recycling: measuring the environmental benefits

• UK collaborators move next generation batteries to next level