West Midlands gigafactory team says next Government must attract more battery investment to the UK

Backers of the West Midlands gigafactory say the next Government must take “urgent” action to bring battery investment to the UK and ensure the country has the skills and capacity it needs to develop the sector.

The site at Coventry Airport, now known as Greenpower Park, has planning consent for a huge £2.5 billion electric vehicle battery factory which it is hoped will also attract firms in the supply chain. It sits within the West Midlands Investment Zone

Now the Greenpower Park team and Coventry council have declared that “securing battery cell supply in the UK today is as vital as securing steel was in the 1940s and 50s”. They say the UK is falling behind countries such as US, France and Spain when it comes to attracting battery investment - and say the next Government should work to accelerate UK battery production.

The UK has one operational gigafactory - Envision AESC - which is producing up to 6 GWh of battery capacity annually. But