Britishvolt to build UK’s first EV battery ‘gigaplant’

Britishvolt is planning to build a gigaplant in South Wales to build lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).

It is one of the UK’s largest-ever industrial investments and is targeted to start production in 2023.

Automotive plant specialist, Ray Macera has been appointed as Britishvolt’s
project director to lead the gigaplant’s construction. He joins Britishvolt as a veteran of leading large-scale automotive projects, most recently, the Gestamp pressing facility that supplies Jaguar Land Rover’s Nitra plant in Slovakia.

He said: “It’s exciting to be involved in such a strategically important project for Britain’s industrial future. Building a gigaplant in Wales is a giant task but with such a focused mission and such strength in depth with the pedigree of Britishvolt’s appointed partners we are already off to a strong start.”

NG Bailey, UK’s largest independent construction business, will lead the build, with automotive manufacturing engineering expert, Rolton Group, partnering to provide engineering design.

Ridge and Partners, meanwhile, will provide project management of architecture and Savillsw will lead on infrastructure, property and planning consultancy.

The new gigaplant is being designed by Pininfarina and is set to be sited on a former RAF base in Bro Tathan, South Wales. It will also house Britishvolt’s manufacturing and R and D facilities. 

Britishvolt CEO, Orral Nadjari said: “Our mission is for the gigaplant to begin supplying the automotive and energy industries with world-class batteries, powering the electric revolution. So it’s essential that we hire world-class talent and forge leading partnerships to help us achieve our goal.

“With these highly experienced new partners leading the construction phase we have the expertise to build and equip a gigaplant that will be transformative for UK car-making, the renewable energy industry and the entire British economy. 

“We already have momentum, working and deploying capital expenditure early in the process so that we can accurately assess, the level of UK government support that will be required to enable us to move the project forwards.

“We’re also working with agility and speed. Thanks to previous experience with the UK BIC plant, we have achieved more progress in the past five weeks than similar projects have done in six months.”