WMG at the University of Warwick are delighted to be part of a £19.4m project to support the development of next-generation electric vehicle batteries in the UK, funded through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC UK Ltd).

The funding will support leading edge manufacturing research focussed around Nissan's Sunderland battery manufacturing plant - the largest full scale automotive Li-ion battery manufacturing facility in Europe. WMG researchers will play a key role in helping Nissan take forward this opportunity and will receive £1m for the research.

The consortium led by Nissan with WMG at the University of Warwick, Hyperdrive, Newcastle University, and Zero Carbon Futures (ZCF), will bring together engineers, researchers, new technology and existing facilities, assets and knowledge to create and prove new and improved manufacturing processes for the next generation of automotive batteries.

WMG has particular skills around battery chemistry and the manufacturing processes used to scale this up to high volume production. WMG role in the project will be to investigate potential improvements to battery chemistry and increasing manufacturing yield, and to optimise automated manufacturing processes to enable Nissan to remain at the forefront of electric vehicle technology.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya said:

We are delighted to be part of this project which clearly shows the UK as the go-to location for European battery manufacture and research. This is the ideal partnership to reinforce that position. Nissan's Sunderland battery manufacturing plant is the largest full scale automotive Li-ion battery manufacturing facility in Europe and WMG is recognised as the UK centre for automotive battery development as demonstrated by our status as APC spoke for Electrical Energy storage, and by several recent project awards to WMG in this area including (ELEVATE AND AMPLIFII).”

Paul Willcox, Chairman, Nissan Europe, said:

With 200,000 customers around the world already, the Nissan LEAF has transformed the performance and perception of EVs and made Nissan the undisputed leader in EV technology.

“Today’s announcement reflects Nissan’s intention to remain EV leaders for many years to come, with our UK operations at the heart of our future innovations.”

Note for editors:

In March WMG was named as the location of the "Electrical Energy Storage Spoke" of the government and industry funded £1 billion Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), which was created to co-ordinate a technical community with a shared interest in battery systems.

For further information please contact:

Lisa Barwick, Head of Marketing and Communications,
WMG, University of Warwick
Tel: 024 76 524721 or 07824 540845
Email: L.Barwick@warwick.ac.uk

Peter Dunn, Director of Press and Policy,
University of Warwick, Tel UK: 024 76523708 office 07767 655860 mobile
Tel Overseas: +44 (0)24 76523708 office +44 (0)7767 655860 mobile/cell
Email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk