Battery manufacturer AMTE Power becomes one of UKBIC’s first commercial customers

AMTE Power, a developer and manufacturer of lithium-ion battery cells for
specialist markets, has become one of the first commercial customers to use
the publicly funded £130 million UK Battery Industrialisation Centre
(UKBIC), under a new framework agreement.

UKBIC allows organisations in the UK to prove whether their promising
technologies – from electrode and cell materials through to battery modules
and packs – can be manufactured at the required volume, speed, performance
and cost to be commercially successful.

The news comes hot on the heels of UKBIC announcing the opening of its
Module and Pack assembly line, the first part of the 18,500 square metre
facility to have been installed and commissioned at the ‘open access’
battery development facility in Coventry.

AMTE Power is already well placed believing itself to be one of only five UK
commercial battery cell manufacturers, with its purpose-built cell
manufacturing facility in Thurso, Scotland. The new agreement will enable
the team to transition from product development in Thurso to larger scale
manufacturing at UKBIC. The agreement will initially see the development of
AMTE Power’s Ultra High-Power cell, which has been designed for the rapidly
growing automotive market specifically targeting high-performance sports
cars and high powered off-highway vehicles.

AMTE Power will use UKBIC to prepare materials, aid design for manufacture,
manufacturing processes and parameters, at scale, representing an important
period of refinement in advance of AMTE Power’s high volume manufacturing
plans.

The new agreement will be pivotal in supporting AMTE Power’s aim to provide
a reliable, scalable supply alternative for the UK automotive industry. With
the ban on new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, this collaboration is
crucial in paving the way for AMTE’s cell scale-up programme.

A key part of the Company’s increased production plans centre on the
building of a new UK manufacturing facility with a capacity of approximately
2GWh per annum, known as a Gigafactory. The Company expects to confirm plans
for the development of the Gigafactory in 2022.

Kevin Brundish, CEO of AMTE Power, comments: “We are very proud to be one of
the first UK manufacturers to use the UKBIC facility as it marks a crucial
step for AMTE and the UK battery industry. It will no doubt be critical in
helping us to underpin our scale up plans for manufacturing to enable us to
serve the significant potential demand we see for our products in the
automotive, oil & gas and energy storage markets.”

Jeff Pratt, Managing Director of UKBIC, added: “We’re delighted to be
working with AMTE Power on the development of its battery technology, one of
the first commercial customers to use our facility. Once completed later
this year, UKBIC will play a key role in the development of skills,
technology, abilities and knowledge as the UK shifts towards
electrification.”