Battery boost for Warwickshire and the West Midlands 

"DRIVE 35 will fund a wide spectrum of projects which help the transition to zero-emission vehicle manufacturing."

July saw a number of strands of activity focused on the UK battery supply chain come together in the West Midlands and the wider UK. 

The Battery Cells & Systems Expo took place at the NEC in Birmingham, combining an exhibition and conference around battery supply chain and vehicle electrification, attracting over 5,000 delegates and 300 exhibitors over two days of conferencing.  

The UK Government also launched the new Industrial Strategy, underpinned by eight Sector Plans, including one around Advanced Manufacturing, and its Automotive strand. As part of the Industrial Strategy, the UK Government has committed £452m to a new Battery Innovation Programme aimed at supporting the commercialisation of next-generation battery technologies, for applications including transport. This will accelerate battery research, innovation and manufacturing scale-up, securing the UK’s global leadership in clean energy and advanced manufacturing to 2030 and beyond. 

The investment will drive growth, attract inward investment in both gigafactories and the supply chain and create high-quality jobs. It leverages the position of the UK as providing world-leading battery research to optimise battery technologies to make them cheaper, better performing, fully sustainable and recyclable, and to capture sovereign capabilities in next generation batteries, for example solid-state, lithium-sulphur and sodium-ion. 

The funding announcement will help accelerate growth in the UK’s battery sector and shows the innovation community the UK Government’s commitment to the sector. The funding sits alongside DRIVE35 (Driving Research & Investment in Vehicle Electrification), an updated and extended range of funding for the automotive sector, which builds on the work of the Automotive Council and the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), providing a 10 year commitment to the automotive sector. DRIVE35  is a £2.5 billion programme of capital and R&D funding for the automotive industry, including £500 million to 2035 to extend R&D support for 10 years. 

DRIVE35 will fund a wide spectrum of projects which help the transition to zero-emission vehicle manufacturing - targeting established high-volume manufacturing and multi-billion-pound gigafactories, all the way to start-ups, prototypes and cutting-edge automotive innovation.   

The programme will provide a more impactful offering for investors across three streamlined pillars: Transformation, Scale Up and Innovation. The government will open the following competitions across the DRIVE35 programme: 

• Automotive Transformation Fund: A new and improved capital funding offer under DRIVE35’s keystone Transformation pillar, supporting large-scale capital investments in the UK, and now with a widened technology scope. 

• Scale Up Feasibility Studies: R&D funding to support businesses with strategic thinking on opportunities to scale, creating a pipeline of exciting decision-ready auto projects for UK investment. 

• Innovation competitions: Through DRIVE35’s Collaborate and Demonstrate streams, we will build on over a decade of success to support both early-stage and late-stage R&D projects involving innovative technologies and processes. 

Recent funding for R&D awarded comes to £70m, and combined with industry funding, this totals £140 million in new investment for UK R&D. These projects will support technologies including batteries, energy storage, lightweighting and power electronics. Successful local recipients include Expert Tooling (Coventry), JLR (Coventry and Gaydon), Lorillion (Coventry), Maeving (Coventry), Muon Tech (Leamington), Mint Innovation (Coventry) and Project Four Design (Warwick). 

The Battery Cells & Systems event was preceded by a Coventry leg of Battery Britain, an initiative to help build a UK battery supply chain. A Battery Britain Coventry event was held at UKBIC in Baginton where supply chain came together with speakers including Valentina Gentili, the incoming Director of the Battery Innovation Programme at Innovate UK from Innovate UK,  Julian Hetherington, Director of Automotive Transformation at APC and Richard Taylor, CEO of Battery Britain, with the event hosted by EV journalist and social media expert Roger Atkins. 

Invest Coventry & Warwickshire exhibited at the Battery Cells & Systems Expo providing an excellent opportunity to engage with the supply chain and promote key local sites like Coventry & Warwick Giga Park / Green Power Park, the West Midlands site for battery cell manufacture, and MIRA Technology Park South Site. 

For more information on the funding available for automotive and battery development, visit the APC website: https://www.apcuk.co.uk/funding/ 

For information on Battery Britain, visit: https://www.batterybritain.co.uk/ 

For information on the Battery Cells & Systems Expo, and the Vehicle Electrification Summit, visit: https://batterysystemsexpo.com/ 

 For support on setting up and expanding in automotive and battery tech, visit Invest Coventry & Warwickshire: https://investcw.co.uk/ 

 For more information on Green Power Park and MIRA Technology Park, visit: https://greenpowerpark.co.uk/ https://www.miratechpark.com/new-development/