Britishvolt signs two-year agreement with UKBIC to manufacture nickel-rich EV batteries

UK battery maker Britishvolt has signed a two-year agreement with the national battery manufacturing development facility UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, or UKBIC, to jointly develop and manufacture next generation nickel-rich battery cells for electric vehicles, it said Jan. 24.

The battery maker is developing high energy, high nickel lithium-ion battery cells to allow EVs to achieve better performance and range and aims to work with UKBIC under the multi-million pound deal to eventually reach mass production and commercialization.

"UKBIC is an essential ingredient in BV's accelerated roadmap to market, providing a platform and environment that delivers high quality development cells in a time period that would be almost impossible in other territories," according to Briishvolt's president of global operations, Graham Hoare.

He added that Britishvolt aimed to work with customers from early on to offer flexibility and specific attributes for their specific application requirements.

The partnership would allow Britishvolt to successfully scale up its tailormade battery cells, designed specifically for customer requirements, Britishvolt Chief Technology Officer Allan Paterson said.

Britishvolt manufactured and tested its first production intent high technical maturity development lithium-ion cells at UKBIC at the end of 2021, which it said bypassed expectations, the battery maker said.

Nickel in a battery cell's cathode increases an EV's energy density and therefore the overall driving range. As car manufacturers have looked to improve the energy density of batteries, configurations of these batteries have evolved from three parts nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC 3-3-3) to the latest eight parts nickel, one part manganese and cobalt (NMC 8-1-1) configuration.

"The manufacture of low carbon battery cells are vital for a successful energy transition to Net Zero," UKBIC Managing Director Jeff Pratt said. "We are here to support UK companies scaling up their battery production and up skilling their workforce, and we welcome the opportunity to support Britishvolt on their journey."

UKBIC is funded by the UK government to assist the UK auto industry to bring new battery technologies to market.

On Jan. 21, Britishvolt announced it had received funding from the UK government, as well as GBP1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) from private investors Tritax and abrdn for the construction of its gigafactory in Blyth, Northumberland

The battery maker is building a 30 GWh gigafactory in phases, which will manufacture enough battery cells a year for over 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs, equivalent to around 25% of current UK vehicle manufacturing.