West Midlands Gigafactory, Coventry will host the largest battery facility in the UK
Located at Coventry Airport, the Gigafactory will be the result of £2.5bn cash injection creating up to 6,000 jobs directly and thousands more in the local supply chain. The facility will be powered by 100 percent sustainable energy project and is expected to start production in 2025. At full capacity, the gigafactory will produce up to 60GWh.
The West Midlands Gigafactory will be built in Coventry, in an area which is the heart of the automotive industry in the UK. It is not a coincidence that one of the most innovative British manufacturers, LEVC, relies on a production site in that area (read here about the recent visit paid by the Major od London, Sadiq Khan). Located at Coventry Airport, the Gigafactory will be the result of £2.5bn cash injection creating up to 6,000 jobs directly and thousands more in the local supply chain. The facility will be powered by 100 percent sustainable energy project and is expected to start production in 2025. At full capacity, the gigafactory will produce up to 60GWh.
The West Midlands Gigafactory to be crucial for automotive industry
West Midlands Gigafactory is a public private joint venture between Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport. «The Gigafactory has a singular mission to create a state-of-the-art battery gigafactory in the heart of the UK automotive industry. It will provide a huge cash investment in the area, leading to thousands of well-paid jobs and creating crucial new skills for this country», said Project Director Mike Murray. «The Coventry Airport site is perfectly located to do just that, being ideally positioned to supply the UK’s leading automotive manufacturers who need access to world-class batteries on their doorsteps. We need to make these advanced lithium-ion batteries where we make cars and there is no better place than in the West Midlands».
A critical link between research and mass production
The Gigafactory will be adjacent to the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, part of the UK’s Faraday Challenge. The Centre provides a critical link between research at laboratory or prototype stages and the successful mass production of new battery technologies. These links will be hugely important to the future development of the Gigafactory in the West Midlands.
«Coventry is the historical home of the automotive industry in the UK, where much of the cutting-edge technology that defined the global car industry last century was created here in our city. Now, as we stand at the dawn of a new electric age, we fully intend for Coventry to be very front of the green industrial revolution which will power the future of the automotive industry», added Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change.
