Britishvolt, the startup building a giant battery plant in north-east England, struck a deal with Lotus to collaborate on the making of the first electric vehicle for the British sports car maker.
The companies signed a deal to co-develop tailored lithium-ion battery cells to provide "optimum performance and differentiation" to Lotus’s performance specifications.
READ: Britishvolt teams up with UK development partner to make high-spec battery cells
In what is the first official customer announcement, Britishvolt confirmed media reports from last week as it said the pair will collaborate on "integrating cell formats and chemistry" to provide enhanced energy density and power capability, fast-charging and other specifications.
Lotus's technology base in Warwickshire is not far from Northumberland-based Britishvolt’s R&D hub in the West Midlands.
The agreement comes hot on the heels of a deal by Britishvolt to develop its first battery cells for commercial production, where it is teaming up with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) to develop, assemble and manufacture battery cells, especially high-nickel, higher-energy-density materials for batteries with the sort of performance and range required of sports cars.
Oliver Jones, Britishvolt's chief commercial officer, said the memorandum of understanding "demonstrates that the legacy one-size-fits-all cell strategy is no longer valid in the rapidly developing electric mobility market.
"It also reinforces Britishvolt’s differentiation strategy of close customer intimacy and partnering to fully optimize battery solutions and enable the differentiation so important to these iconic brands and products."
Matt Windle, managing director of Lotus Cars, said the collaboration formed "the first exciting steps on the journey towards an all-new electric sports car from Lotus".
Having last year set out its plans for a "pure electric" future, Windle said Lotus will unveil an all-new and all-electric Lotus SUV, the Type 132, with three more EVs also "on the way".