Britishvolt, the UK startup electric car battery maker, has struck a deal to develop its first battery cells for commercial production.
The Northumberland-based company said it agreed a multi-million-pound deal with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) to develop, assemble and manufacture battery cells, which it said would be focused on high-nickel, higher-energy-density materials for batteries with greater performance and range.
With the UKBIC providing battery manufacturing scale-up, Britishvolt said it has already produced its first ‘production intent’ lithium-ion cells, which are “exceeding its expectations” and putting it “on a glidepath to its first commercial products”.
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Production of high-spec battery cells in collaboration with the UKBIC could tie in with reports last week that sport car maker Lotus was close to an agreement with Britishvolt to explore teaming up on battery manufacturing, research and development.
This deal would be the first official tie-up with an car manufacturer for the battery startup, which also last week was awarded a £100mln government funding, as part of a £1.7bn investment plan, to help with developing its £2bn electric car battery plant on the site of the former Blyth power station in north-east England.
With the factory designed to eventually produce enough batteries to power 300,000 electric vehicles a year, working with UKCBIC will allow Britishvolt to scale up tailormade battery cells, designed specifically for customer requirements, said chief technical Officer Dr Allan Paterson.
The tie-up is “an essential ingredient in BV’s accelerated roadmap to market”, added operations chief Graham Hoare, as the Coventry-based partner provided “a platform and environment that delivers high quality development cells in a time period that would be almost impossible in other territories”.
He said the company was already seeing “promising results” from the collaboration.
“By working with our customers early we can offer flexibility and specific attributes linked to their application requirements. This is a vital USP and signals that the age of ‘off the peg’ battery production is no longer suitable for all,” he said.
The publicly-funded UKBIC, which was opened last year with the aim of helping companies 'upskill' in the battery sector and scale up their manufacturing processes, can be accessed by any organisation looking to develop battery technologies in the UK.