A partnership between WMG at the University of Warwick (www.wmg.warwick.ac.uk), Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Coventry City Council has been awarded £80 million to establish a new National Battery Manufacturing Development Facility.

The announcement was made by Business Secretary Greg Clark at an energy conference on the University of Warwick campus at the end of November.

The new national facility — to be established in Warwickshire — will enable UK-based companies and researchers to establish a world-leading position in manufacturing technologies for vehicle batteries and their components.

It will enable partnerships between manufacturers, researchers and economic development leaders, while remaining independent from commercial interests.

WMG has been working for 15 years with industry to develop and prove new battery technologies. More recently, it has been working through the APC Spoke, the National Battery Scale Up facility and the Energy Research Accelerator.

It has a vast array of research projects already under way, looking at new battery technologies, how to scale up battery manufacturing and how to recycle and re-use such batteries.

Lord Bhattacharyya, chairman of WMG said: “Having a 37-year track record of working with industry, WMG is poised to continue to drive forward battery innovation and help create growth and employment in the UK.”