Britishvolt boss on latest updates at north-east gigafactory

I would say the biggest challenge for me personally has been how I initially underestimated how complex batteries are. An internal combustion engine has 700 or 800 parts inside a vehicle that's got 3500 parts and where, as an industry, we're very good at putting those things together cost effectively. The battery system is probably 15 parts into a cell, whether it's prismatic or cylindrical, but those 15 parts are extremely complex. And the interdependency between the product design and the manufacturing ability of those parts ultimately determines everything from the end performance to quality and sustainability.

So that's been a surprise for me how much depth of knowledge we are now putting into making sure that those batteries are fit for the future. That includes their carbon footprint needing to be, in our case, about 25 kilograms embedded CO2 compared to the rest of Europe, who are close to 60. So really thinking deeply about not just the product, but how we manufacture it.

What's your to-do list looking like at the moment, having broken ground fairly recently on the factory?

With the product itself, we've recently gone through a successful sample phase. So proving the chemistry development is functioning and performing as per our targets. In fact, we're delighted that the samples beat our own expectations.

We're using some new research code that was developed as part of the Faraday programme, which, with those computer models, isn’t used at an industrial level anywhere else in the world. So we've been able to use that new technology developed within the ecosystem of the UK, and predict more accurately and target more accurately how the design of these cells and the chemistry of them is brought together to create some unique recipes. That's really the genesis of the company: to create unique solutions.

Our ability to customise and co-develop cells is really the USP for Britishvolt. To me, that's really important in a world where you've got brands as beautiful as Aston Martin and Lotus who are synonymous with performance and differentiation. And that's really what these batteries of the future can do for us: they can create unique capabilities in the vehicles in which they're put, particularly if they're successfully co-developed with these manufacturers.

Will batteries be like tyres, in that specific types are developed for specific cars?

That's how it will be, particularly for brands that are really at the edge of the performance envelope of the industry. And the two target areas for Britishvolt are the commercial vehicle and sports car ends of the business.

That was a very conscious decision, because many of the mainstream players will actually work in the middle of the bell curve where most of the volume of the future is for vehicles like a Ford Focus.

In contrast, we’ll be in really challenging use cases. This encourages very, very strong co-development between us and the OEM, to create recipes and solutions that will ultimately deliver a very differentiated proposition. That might be a very rapid charge time, where the batteries are used on a track and have to be able to charge very rapidly and can't afford to wait an hour or two to cool down before recharging. But also then catering for the massive power release that's required for some of these much higher-performance vehicles.

On the commercial vehicle front, it’s a very different environment, but very similar in terms of requirements to deep co-develop with our customers. Again, from my Ford background, the commercial vehicle business at Ford is really, really critical. It's a very high-value proposition. Products like a Ford Transit are world leading and that's not by accident. By partnering with these premium blue-chip commercial vehicle companies, we can develop chemistries that last longer, that have larger range, and their life cycle is much longer.

But also they can be used [intensively], as commercial vehicles are in use 80% of their lives, whereas a passenger car might sit on the drive for 80% of its life. The battery chemistry has to be different.

Why did you pick Blythe for the factory?

It's a remarkable spot because of its proximity to a rail system, right on the edge of the coast. It's a deep-sea port as well, with a very flat and clean site that used to be a storage facility for the adjacent coal-fired power station. So the grid connections are phenomenal there, which is usually one big problem with gigafactories.

Also, it's at the end of the Norwegian interconnector, which connects the UK to Norway’s hydropower. So its energy is sustainable, it's fully green, making this one of the cleanest gigafactories in the world.

It's also a good place to live, with a great workforce, so has a plentiful supply of the sort of people we need to manufacture these batteries.

What's your biggest worry ahead of the factory coming on stream in 2024?

Obviously, at a macro level, there's a significant challenge with what's happening in Ukraine and Russia at the moment.

It's critical for lots of reasons - the obvious reasons - but also supply chain-related exposure. In our case, we have one component that isn't sanctioned that we source in Russia. But we will be moving away from that company.

The other issue is energy, both in provision and cost. That, for the whole of the auto industry, has been a real rollercoaster over the last 18 months. In the gigafactory business, it's a much more prolific problem, unless you have the advantage of an interconnector strapped on the side of your site.

We're feeling more comfortable about the energy situation, particularly now as we've moved away from gas. Most gigafactories use about 15% to 20% of their energy through gas, primarily for the heating and air conditioning of the plant rooms.

The last issue is inevitably commodity prices. We're all familiar with the dramatic change in the price of nickel. That happened only in mid-March, where the London Metal Exchange had to suspend trading, and was really a sign that these materials are in very high demand. Or at least a perceived demand in the future.

Everyone, from gigafactories to OEMs to even the mining community, has a vested interest in making sure that we secure the supply chain. What we're finding is that all of those partners are starting to take stakes in materials. So they're all starting to secure the supply chain alongside ourselves, and that's artificially driving the price up. That is a big concern.

Our approach is to work collaboratively right at the front end of the process, like with Glencore where we've secured about 30% of our cobalt supply.

At the moment, we feel reasonably stable until about 2027. At that point, that's where we've got to strengthen the supply chains and that’s just ahead of when recycling will become more impactful and will obviously then change the demand cycle again.

What happens if mass-produced solid-state batteries suddenly become possible? Does that alter your business plan?

I think solid state is a really interesting opportunity. We're in partnership with Oxford University, through the Faraday programme, and Johnson Matthey, in the development of a solid-state battery.

If you think about those partners, we've got a pretty good chance of getting the recipe right. But we feel that that development, alongside all the competitors in that space, is further away than we all think.