Time is running out if the UK is to create an electric vehicle battery supply chain or risk losing its automotive manufacturing industry, an industry expert has said.
Industry veteran Dr Colin Herron made his comments in the wake of the demise Britishvolt. Speaking to BusinessLive as the start-up's dream of 3,000 Northumberland jobs at a mammoth gigafactory lay in tatters, Dr Herron, a professor of practice at Newcastle University, said he is working on a manifesto to drive home the urgent need for battery making capacity as the Government's ban on new petrol and diesel cars looms from 2030.
Dr Herron, who did not have a formal relationship with Britishvolt but had been working with universities and SMEs to develop skills, research and supply chain links for the start-up, said that the firm's ambitious plan to create its own battery cell technology had wider benefits for the North East in the way that a manufacturer with an existing product did not.
Read more: Inquiry launched into UK battery production after Britishvolt collapse
Assessing what comes next for the 93 hectare Britishvolt site near Cambois, which is said to be among the country's best locations for building a gigafactory, Dr Herron said: "If it's, for instance, a South Korean conglomerate - they'll bring their own chemistry, their own training, their own package to build. Whereas Britishvolt were more British in that they needed the universities and we could add more value.
"A way of looking at it is to think about the Ikea flat pack version of a battery plant. There's less regional perspective and chance of North East SMEs getting work there than if it's a new, embryonic plant."
Estimates vary, but The Faraday Institution has calculated the UK's demand for electric vehicle production could reach 130GWh per year by 2040. Britishvolt had hoped to provide 38GWh once fully operational and it is widely thought the UK needs at least eight new gigafactories to keep pace.
Such projects take years to bring to fruition meaning the UK is seen as lagging severely behind in its capacity. Asked if this would have a bearing on who, if any investor, takes on the Cambois site Dr Herron added: "If you were working in HM Treasury, I'd say you don't care. If somebody buys that site, employs 3,800 people, knocks out batteries and pays their taxes, it's job done.
"If you work in other parts of government you say: 'How are we going to become the world class country in batteries that we want to be?' Well, you're not.
"There's going to be the battle between the political people and the Treasury. If somebody rocked up tomorrow and said 'I've got £1bn, I'll build that factory, don't worry', I'm sure the Treasury would tell them to get on with it."
Last summer Britishvolt told BusinessLive it had sent prototype battery cells to potential customers, but the value of its intellectual property - now being controlled by the firm's administrators - is unknown. Dr Herron said: "The samples they've made have performed well, but what they've never done is to have them scaled up. There's a difference between production batch runs and then making several hundred thousand to a specification.
"Not only do you need a chemistry, you need a chemistry that works and you also need processes that are certified as capable. So, it's very hard to prove to the authorities and systems people that you've got full control of a process that doesn't exist.
"That's why Britishvolt bought Hams Hall down near Birmingham, so they could produce prototypes and serious production runs they could sell but also so they could develop a reputation and get certification to allow them to supply. You can't just build a gigaplant, run off lithium-ion batteries and go: 'Well they'e OK, you can buy them.'"
There is now speculation about who can salvage the vision of a gigafactory at the Cambois site which has undergone substantial works to ready it for building. Dr Herron added: "The big question is who is going to supply Jaguar Land Rover? If Tata [Jaguar Land Rover owner] wants to get into the battery business - which I assume they do - I'd think that site would be ripe for a battery factory to supply JLR, if Tata wanted to move in."
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