The UK’s largest independent manufacturer of vehicle batteries will open a multi-million-pound high-tech facility in early 2019 in Coventry — creating around 90 jobs — to produce high-performance batteries forhybrid and electric vehicles.

The factory will be operated by Hyperbat Ltd — a new joint venture between Williams Advanced Engineering and Unipart Manufacturing Group — and will provide a secure future supply chain for UK-based automotive manufacturers, as their vehicles ‘transition’ to electric power (with the potential to provide similar solutions to marine and aircraft
projects in the future).

Williams Advanced Engineering (www.williamsf1.com/advanced-engineering) has years of experience electrifying vehicles, from powering all the cars on the grid of the ABB FIA Formula E championship to projects as varied as the Vanda Electrics Dendrobium electric hypercar and Jaguar Vector Racing world speed record-breaking electric boat.

In April this year, the company won a Queen’s Award for its work on commercial applications of its Formula E battery technology.

Carol Burke, managing director of Unipart Manufacturing Group (www.unipart.com), said: “We are delighted to be working with Williams Advanced Engineering on this venture.

“We have developed an advanced manufacturing facility on our Coventry site — the very site in which the British automotive industry produced some of its first petrol vehicles.”