8:39 am, May 10, 2023
Britain’s automotive industry could ‘migrate’ to central Europe over the coming years after the UK ‘missed the boat’ when it comes to cutting edge battery technology.
That is the verdict of a panel of experts who have issued a grave warning to MPs on the business and trade select committee.
Battery material specialists told the committee that the UK will still be playing catch up by the time 2030 rolls around, casting serious doubt on the government’s ability to stick to its proposed ban on new petrol and diesel cars.
Earlier this year industry leaders told Car Dealer the government’s plans were becoming increasingly unlikely to happen on time.
While not commenting on the proposed ban specifically, Simon Moores, chief executive of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, said the UK’s battery production was unlikely to be up to scratch by 2030.
‘The UK is a bystander in a global battery materials arms race. The UK does not have a strategy so we don’t have a runner in the race,’ he told MPs.
‘The UK missed the boat in the first round of the supply of these critical materials and probably in the second round too.
‘We have to make sure we don’t miss the boat in the third and final round from about 2030 onwards.’
He added: ‘You have to ask what the automotive companies here, the big chemical companies like Ineos in the UK, were doing.
‘They weren’t plugged into batteries when China and Japan was, when Korea, the US and the EU was. They have not even been talking about lithium ion batteries as a serious multibillion-pound industry when it is exactly that for everyone else in the world.’
Also on the panel was Ian Constance, chief executive of the taxpayer-funded Advanced Propulsion Centre.
The Times reports he told the committee he had concerns over the UK’s network of gigafactories and warned of a mass exodus of to central Europe, which has more battery plants set up already.
Meanwhile, Stephen Gifford, chief economist of the Faraday Institution, said ‘time is running out’ for the UK to attract investment into battery plants.
He predicted that ten 20GWh battery production plants will be needed by 2040 with five in production by 2030.
The hearing was called in the aftermath of the collapse of Britishvolt earlier this year.
Almost 200 employees lost their jobs as a result of the crash, before Australian start-up Recharge agreed a deal to takeover the outfit.
