Bringing Battery Manufacturing to the UK

The Faraday Institution worked with McKinsey Energy Insights and the University of Oxford to develop a robust methodology to assess future demand for batteries manufactured in the UK and the battery manufacturing capacity required to support EV production.

Summary

The Faraday Institution report UK Electric Vehicle and Battery Production Potential to 2040 on potential battery manufacturing demand has supported the development of UK Government policy, elevating discussions around the need to secure a domestic supply of batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) to strengthen the UK’s automotive sector through the energy transition.

By the numbers
7Number of UK gigafactories needed to meet future demand by 2040
29%Potential growth of industry workforce in auto and battery production
50,000Potential jobs created

The Faraday Institution worked with McKinsey Energy Insights and the University of Oxford to develop a robust methodology to assess future demand for batteries manufactured in the UK and the battery manufacturing capacity required to support EV production. The first report was published in March 2019 and was updated in March 2020.

The report has been used extensively in UK Government including:

  • Providing key evidence for the UK Government gigafactory pitch deck used in meetings with Asian cell manufactures in 2019, as part of the efforts to attract a gigafactory to the UK.
  • Presenting key findings to Number 10 special advisers and civil servants in October 2019.
  • Presenting key findings to HM Treasury, the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the Climate Change Committee over the summer 2019 and spring 2020 periods.
  • By BEIS, particularly the Automotive and Advanced Manufacturing teams. The Faraday Institution has trained BEIS analysts in the use of the underlying model. They used it to assess employment impacts as part of the BEIS Automotive Transformation Fund business case to HM Treasury.
  • It is the reference point for UK Government briefings on future UK battery manufacturing potential

The economic impact of UK-based gigafactories could be substantial. The 2020 study finds that there will be demand for seven UK-based gigafactories by 2040, each producing 20 GWh per year of batteries and the overall industry workforce in the automotive and EV battery ecosystem could grow by 29% from 170,000 in 2020 to 220,000 employees by 2040.

The Faraday Institution report on UK battery demand was used extensively to evidence the requirement for UK based automotive battery gigafactories and therefore the need for the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to support establishing them. The report underpins a significant element of the business case for the ATF and has therefore been instrumental in communicating the urgency around the need for automotive supply chain transformation. The UK demand for batteries and other key elements from the report are also extensively used in discussions with potential inward investors to the UK and have been cited in the official UK government prospectus to help attract these investors to the UK.”

Ian Constance, Chief Executive Officer – Advanced Propulsion Centre UK

Success story published September 2020.

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