Britishvolt is to invest more than £200mln in a new facility in the West Midlands to test manufacturing techniques that it plans to use in its planned Northumberland battery factory.
With equipment installation expected by the end of autumn 2023, the battery technology developer is to lease a site in Hams Hall, Warwickshire, from warehouse developer ProLogis.
In addition to developing new cell formats and electro chemistries, the site will help reduce the cost of EV batteries by creating higher-performance, production-ready batteries, the group predicted, as well as creating 150 skilled technology jobs and becoming a "centre of excellence" in electrification.
Having a testing facility should enable the company to increase production and manufacture larger volumes at its Northumberland gigaplant, it said.
Britishvolt will also gain access to a significant number of engineers working in the West Midlands, which has been a hub for the British automotive industry for many years.
Jaguar Land Rover plans to build a battery assembly center at Hams Hall, while BMW works on petrol engines there as well.
Located at ProLogis Park Hams Hall, the aim is for the new facility to be net-zero carbon in construction.
With its commercial partnerships with Lotus Cars and Aston Martin, Britishvolt has already secured cumulative demand in excess of 7GWh by 2024 and 2025, and is close to tying down deals for the full 38GWh capacity of its gigaplant site in Northumberland.
WMG, Advanced Propulsion Centre and UK Battery Industrialisation Centre are located in the West Midlands.
"This is another important milestone for Britishvolt and its world class automotive industry. The UK’s battery ecosystem is a global leader in integrated technology development and industrialisation with the Warwick Manufacturing Group, Faraday Institution, UK Battery Industrialisation Centre and the Advanced Propulsion Centre," said Paul Franklin, property director, Britishvolt.