WMG report lays out £2.7bn UK battery opportunity

Growth in electric vehicle (EV) sales is expected to increase steadily in the coming years. According to WMG, co-locating battery production alongside the UK’s existing automotive manufacturing could present a £2.7bn per year opportunity for UK businesses. The country’s chemical sector, in particular, could benefit from the potential boom, but the chemical supply chain would need to undergo major changes in order to secure the necessary materials and deliver a reliable flow of battery components.

“This report details a massive opportunity to grow a UK battery chemicals industry and related supply chain,” said WMG’s Professor David Greenwood, one of the authors of the report.

“The UK’s Industrial Strategy identified battery development and manufacture as one of the four initial Grand Challenges to coalesce industrial activity upon high growth opportunities. Battery pack manufacturing for electric vehicles (EVs) will logically take place close to the point of vehicle assembly since packs are hard to transport. This in turn implies that the battery cells which make up the packs will best be manufactured in (or close to) the UK. This could also mitigate the loss of vehicle engine production.”