Britishvolt, an electric battery provider, has announced that it will receive UK government funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to continue work on its Northumberland gigaplant, where it intends to mass produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
Britishvolt plans to build a £3.8bn battery cell gigaplant in Northumberland, which it claims is one of the UK’s biggest-ever industrial investments and the largest in the North East of England since Nissan’s arrival in 1984.
The battery firm claims that its gigaplant supports the government’s Ten Point Green Recovery Plan and is an important step to the UK reaching net zero by 2050.
Read more: Britishvolt accelerates development of EV cell tech
“This is great news for our plans to construct the UK’s premier battery cell Gigaplant in Northumberland,” said Isobel Sheldon OBE, chief strategy officer at Britishvolt.
“While the overwhelming majority of investment for the project will come from private sources, the ATF’s grant funding is very important in proving that the UK government is confident that we will deliver on our plans, and this will help to generate further private investment.
“It’s a clear indicator of the government’s policy towards electrification of society in the Race to Zero.
“We want to thank the UK government for its support for this critical investment which will create over 3,000 direct and 5,000 indirect jobs, and that will also strengthen the UK’s technological base and play a key role in helping the country reach its net zero target by 2050.
“The Britishvolt gigaplant will create both the jobs and the industry of the future.”
It intends to create more than 3,000 skilled direct jobs onsite at full production, plus a further 5,000 in the wider supplier chains.
