Eve Energy considers building battery factory in Coventry

The Chinese battery cell manufacturer and BMW partner Eve Energy is planning a factory at Coventry Airport, according to British media. Eve Energy is in talks with politicians to initially invest around £1.2 billion for 20 GWh of annual capacity in the future factory.

The plant will later be expanded to 60 GWh, according to the Sunday Times and the Guardian. This would probably make it the largest battery factory in the UK when completed, as the AESC factory currently under construction in Sunderland is designed for a maximum of 35 GWh. And the announced Tata project in Somerset is planned for 40 GWh.

The plant could create up to 6,000 jobs. However, the project is apparently dependent on subsidies totalling several hundred million pounds. However, the talks are said to be at an “advanced stage”. This suggests that there is agreement in principle, but that the exact subsidy amounts and conditions are now being negotiated.

There are not yet many details about the allegedly planned factory. Eve Energy is currently building its first European plant in Hungary to supply BMW, for example. Large-volume round cells for BMW’s New Class are to be built in Debrecen – up to 28 GWh per year. Just this March, Eve Energy also concluded a production agreement with StoreDot, whereby StoreDot has secured part of Eve’s production capacity for its extremely fast-charging battery cells. StoreDot intends to market these cells, but Eve Energy will also manufacture such cells under licence and market them itself.

Plans for a 60 GWh factory in Coventry are not new, but strictly speaking only the Eve Energy investment. The British joint venture West Midlands Gigafactory had already presented plans for a cell factory in Coventry in 2021, with production scheduled to start in 2025. However, the project has not materialised to date – following the insolvency of Britishvolt last year, the British battery industry appears to be primarily reliant on foreign partners.

For a long time, the West Midlands was the heart of the British car industry. Currently, Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin Lagonda and BMW still have factories there. The UK’s largest battery research centre, the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, is also located there.

thetimes.co.uk (paywall), thisismoney.co.uk, theguardian.com