Northumberland firm Britishvolt is to work with sports car manufacturer Lotus on an electric vehicle for the luxury car maker.
The battery maker - which last week announced that it had raised the £1.7bn needed to make its battery gigafactory near Blyth a reality - has signed a memorandum of understanding with Lotus to develop its lithium-ion for Lotus vehicles.
The partnership will see the two firms work on a battery cell package that will power the next generation of electric sports cars from Lotus. It comes after Lotus invested £100m into the development of electric sports cars.
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The deal is also the first public contract between Britishvolt and a first-tier automotive brand, with the company saying other announcements are set to follow in the next few weeks.
Oliver Jones, chief commercial officer at Britishvolt, said: “Britishvolt is excited to be working with such a prestigious and highly acclaimed OEM (original equipment manufacturer) 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“This MoU demonstrates that the legacy one-size-fits-all cell strategy is no longer valid in the rapidly developing electric mobility market.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 and products.”
Development work on the project will initially take place at the two companies' R&D centres in the West Midlands.
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It is hoped that work on high-performance vehicles will ultimately cascade down to influence more affordable batteries and electric vehicles.
Matt Windle, Lotus Cars managing director, said: “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. These are the first exciting steps on the journey towards an all-new electric sports car from Lotus.
“Last year we committed Lotus to a pure electric future, and in the first month of this year we announce another significant step on that journey. In the coming months we will be unveiling the Type 132, an all-new and all-electric Lotus SUV and we’ve confirmed three more EVs are on the way.”
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Britishvolt last week that it had secured a grant worth tens of millions of pounds from the Government’s Automotive Transformation Fund, which had in turn unlocked funding of £1.7bn from investment groups Tritax and abrdn.
It is hoped the plant will create 3,000 direct jobs, with the potential for another 5,000 in its supply chain.