A £380m Government boost will support the building of one of the largest gigafactories in Europe.

The funding for the Agratas’ project will support the development of the Somerset facility, producing battery cells for anchor customer, JLR (Jaguar Land Rover).

Elsewhere, the Government is injecting £47m worth of support for key R&D battery projects through the Battery Innovation Programme, with startups and well-established firms including Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover awarded £90min DRIVE35 funding to ramp up prototype projects.

DRIVE35 is built to anchor future vehicle production, scale up battery manufacturing, grow the UK’s innovative companies and onshore the supply chain capabilities. It could unlock up to £7.46bn in private investment by 2035. The funding award from the Department for Business and Trade is facilitated via the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) in partnership with Innovate UK. 

Julian Hetherington, Automotive Transformation Director at the APC, said: “This globally significant investment by Agratas reinforces the UK’s accelerating position in pursuit of road transport decarbonisation through the production of vital high-performance batteries for electrified vehicles.”

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