By Millie Turner
Lithium battery maker AMTE Power is set to build a so-called megafactory in the UK, in a bid to build on “a strong heritage of innovation” in the country as opposed to mainland Europe, which has equally attractive financial incentives.
The London-listed firm, which also makes sodium batteries to store renewable energy, saw shares surge as much as 42 per cent today.
Lithium batteries are critical for electric vehicles and are currently in short supply globally.
“The UK was always a target space for us,” CEO Kevin Brundish told City A.M. “The UK’s got a very hard drive towards net zero, a lead in that space, and one key areas of that is decarbonising the automotive and energy provision.”
He explained that the UK government has put “quite a lot into the road to net zero”, having “created funds in the Faraday battery challenge and the automotive transformation fund” which combined have pumped more than £1.3bn into the cause.
The megafactory will cost around £190m in investment, creating more than 1,000 jobs on-site and via supply chains.
Bosses at AMTE expect the site, based in Scotland, to be up and running within the next three years and pull in revenue of £200m each year.
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