Battery pioneer Britishvolt, the UK’s foremost investor in battery cell technologies and associated R&D to create homegrown intellectual property, is delighted to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] with UK sports car manufacturer Lotus to demonstrate tailor-made battery cells. The partnership will focus on the co-development of an innovative new battery cell package to power the next generation of electric sports cars from Lotus.

The package is set to feature in a new sports car, powered by Britishvolt cells and utilising advanced electric propulsion technologies developed by Lotus. Development work on the project will benefit from the close proximity of Lotus and Britishvolt’s R&D centres of excellence in the West Midlands, the UK’s ‘golden triangle’ of battery development. The Lotus Advanced Technology Centre (LATC) opened in Wellesbourne in 2020 as the global headquarters of Lotus Engineering, the consultancy division of the business. The collaboration with Britishvolt is another significant development in the ongoing transformation of Lotus, from a UK sports car company to a global and all-electric performance car business and brand.

It follows a £100m investment by Lotus in its UK facilities, which includes manufacturing centres at Hethel for the Evija pure electric hypercar and Emira sports car – future-proofing the world-renowned and innovative UK high-performance auto sector and the thousands of jobs that it supports. “Britishvolt is excited to be working with such a prestigious and highly acclaimed OEM as Lotus. This MoU demonstrates that the legacy one-size-fits-all cell strategy is no longer valid in the rapidly developing electric mobility market. It also reinforces Britishvolt’s differentiation strategy of close customer intimacy and partnering to fully optimize battery solutions and enable the differentiation so important to these iconic brands & products.” As in Formula 1, this high-performance research and development will ultimately cascade down to influence the electro chemistries of more affordable batteries and EVs. “Lotus is delighted to be collaborating with Britishvolt to develop new battery cell technology to showcase the thrilling performance that a Lotus EV sports car can deliver.

According to Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) research, based on its unique relationships with vehicle manufacturers, by 2030 the UK will need over 90GWh per annum of batteries for cars and light commercials alone which represents over 11% of the total demand across Europe. The UK offers an extremely competitive landscape for investment in the full research, development and manufacturing ecosystem for electric vehicle technologies. It also underscores the Government’s ambitions, following recent news that it is backing Britishvolt via the Automotive Transformation Fund, for the UK to be a world leader in the battery industry, having already established a unique and impressive ecosystem including WMG, University of Warwick, Advanced Propulsion Centre, The Faraday Institution and UK Battery Industrialistion Centre. Britishvolt’s Gigaplant will create thousands of highly-skilled jobs, regenerating a site that was previously home to the UK’s largest coal-fired power station. This is true transformation, unlocked by the government’s commitment to support green growth and levelling-up.