The University of Warwick has been granted a share of £12m to supercharge the production of EV battery materials in the UK.
Awarded via the Faraday Battery Challenge, the funding will support the High Value Manufacturing Catapult at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and CPI at the North East Technology Park (NETPark) in advancing UK supply chains of EV battery materials.
The funding will see the development of the new Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre (AMBIC), which aims to bridge the gap between academic research and battery production.
Thomas Bartlett, Challenge Deputy Director for the Faraday Battery Challenge, explained: “AMBIC will bring together two emerging regions of battery innovation and manufacturing, the North-East and Midlands, under one facility to de-risk and accelerate battery materials scale-up in the UK.
“Through the Faraday Battery Challenge’s £12m investment in the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, we will establish a truly world-class facility to support the growth of a battery materials supply chain.
“With AMBIC and previous investments in cell, module and pack scale-up at UKBIC and R&D in the wider ecosystem, the UK will now be in a position to support businesses from ‘powder to pack’ and from lab to commercial scales.”
Reducing the costs of EVs
Batteries represent around 50% of the total cost of an electric vehicle. These high costs is a significant barrier to EV uptake that stops motorists from making the transition.
Therefore, reducing the cost of EV battery materials will help to bring parity between EVs and traditional combustion engine vehicles.
Professor David Greenwood, CEO of the WMG High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre, added: “Cathode and anode active materials make up more than 50% of the value of an automotive battery cell.
“For the UK to take its great academic research into production and to capture the billions of pounds of resulting economic value in the UK, we need facilities which allow Britain to scale up and fully evaluate new materials.
“This investment, alongside the combined skillsets of CPI and WMG, will provide that capability for the UK.”
Aims of the AMBIC
The funding for the AMBIC is part of a wider investment strategy from the Faraday Battery Challenge and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult to turbocharge domestic production of EV battery materials.
The initiative will help to produce batteries at scale to reduce bottlenecks in the EV industry and reinforce the country’s supply chains from market volatility.
Through combining the expertise of the CPI and WMG, the UK is in the driver’s seat to position itself at the forefront of battery technology innovation, helping to drive climate targets and bring in a host of economic benefits.
