The UK's getting a new gigafactory, and it'll be led by the ex-boss of Lotus Cars

Big news for the UK battery supply chain: Volklec is scaling up. Truly, there ain't no party like a UK-battery-supply-chain party.

Volk-who, you cry? It’s a Coventry-based battery manufacturer which has partnered with China’s Far East Battery (FEB). And it matters, because it means the nation now has an independent battery factory. Hurrah!

Volklec will mass-produce batteries on home turf, using FEB’s scaling know-how. And it’ll make them in two flavours. First up, there are the energy cells for storage and e-mobility applications. Then Volklec plans to launch advanced lithium-ion cells for use in cars, boats and planes.

Initially, operations will run out of the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), which has capacity for 100 megawatt-hours of energy. By 2026, that 100MWh line will run concurrently with another one gigawatt-hour line. That’s equivalent to one million kilowatt-hours (kWh).

Still unsure how much that is? Put it this way, the long-range version of the Tesla Model Y (the UK’s best selling EV) has a battery capacity of 75kWh, so by our questionable maths, that is, erm, a lot of harnessed electricities.

Led by the ex-boss of Lotus, Phil Popham, Volklec’s longer term ambitions include creating a 10GWh gigafactory – hoping to succeed where others have failed (BritishVolt, we’re looking squarely at you). Back in 2023, MPs warned of a ‘gigafactory gap’. Popham hopes this deal will act as a catalyst for the UK’s battery supply chain.

In China, FEB is a big player, producing 400,000 of those cylindrical cells on a daily basis (for the record, Volklec will produce about 137,000 once the 1GWh line gets going). Part of the deal gives Volklec access to raw material suppliers at more favourable prices than small-scale manufacturers have been able to secure to date.

SMMT boss Mike Hawes said: “This is promising news for the UK automotive sector. It comes at a time when we must ramp up our electric vehicle supply chain offering, especially for batteries and their components. We now need industrial and trade strategies to support the competitiveness of the entire UK automotive sector.”

Get your battery-supply-chain party hats ready, folks.