Hyperbat, a manufacturer of electric vehicle (EV) battery packs, has secured a multimillion-pound contract to supply batteries to British automotive company Lotus for its new electric Evija model.
Hyperbat was initially formed by bringing together Williams Advanced Engineering’s (WAE) EV battery expertise with Unipart’s manufacturing experience with OEMs.
The joint venture will be supporting the scaling-up of EV production in the UK through the manufacture of 90kWh lithium-ion battery packs, which will be used in what Locus calls the first British-made all-electric supercar.
Production will take place at Unipart Manufacturing Group’s Coventry site, which was recently fitted with a new production line.
The mid-mounted battery pack is intended to support a target output of 2000PS and performance targets of 0-62mph (99km/h) in less than three seconds and top speeds of more than 200mph (321km/h).
Andy Davis, Director at Hyperbat, said: “To win a contract with Lotus to supply battery packs for the world’s most powerful production car demonstrates the exceptional technology and manufacturing expertise we have at Hyperbat.
“This comes from decades of experience as a first-tier automotive industry manufacturer and is an example of how Hyperbat can continue Britain’s heritage at the frontier of technological innovation in the automotive industry, coupled with Unipart’s expertise in execution.
“Required performance levels will be facilitated by our proprietary welding and joining technologies, which, alongside the deployment of the latest digital technologies, are critical to achieving the highest levels of performance and product quality.”
The company has said it is committed to selecting the most competitive supply solutions and is working with the Advanced Propulsion Centre to grow the UK’s EV supply chain capability through the ‘H1perChain’ project.
Hyperbat is part of business consortium leveraging 5G-enabled tech to support improved manufacturing processes, other members of which include BT and Nvidia.
