8:38 am, July 17, 2020
Britain is set to get its first gigafactory for electric car battery production.
Start-up company Britishvolt has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Welsh government for a new 30GWh battery plant.
The planned location is a former RAF base at Bro Tathan business park, south Wales, according to The Guardian.
Britishvolt intends to break ground in quarter two of 2021 with eventual plans to create as many as 3,500 jobs in the area. The firm also intends to build a 200MW solar power plant to supply the factory with energy.
It’ll be the first factory of its type in Britain and will answer calls from the UK government and car manufacturers for such a development to secure jobs in the automotive industry.
The announcement comes after Elon Musk ruled out the UK for Tesla’s gigafactory in November 2019. Musk eventually chose a site near Berlin, Germany, citing Brexit as the reason for not choosing Britain.
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