Construction of Envision AESC’s huge electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant is set to start in the North East after formal planning permission was granted.
Plans for the £450m plant – the 海角视频’s first at scale battery manufacturing plant – were first revealed in the summer, as part of a joint £1bn project with Nissan and Sunderland City Council which will ultimately led to the creation of thousands of new jobs.
The 9GWh-capacity plant is the focal part of the partnership between Envision AESC, the battery division of global green tech company Envision Group, the local authority and Nissan 海角视频 to create an electric vehicle hub supporting next-generation EV production.
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Envision AESC welcomed approval of the plans, which secures the investment of £450m. The plans create 750 green jobs and safeguard 300 jobs at its existing Sunderland plant.
Construction of the new building on IAMP – which spans land in South Tyneside and Sunderland – starts next year, to support battery production in 2024.
It will also potentially unlock future investment of £1.8bn on the site, to generate 35GWh capacity and 4,500 new high value green jobs by 2030.
The company’s existing Sunderland plant has been supplying batteries to Nissan for the Leaf electric vehicle for the last nine years, and the new scaled-up factory will produce batteries to power more than 100,000 EVs a year, using new Gen5 battery cells with a third more energy density to improve range, efficiency and exceptional performance.
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The new factory will also be the firm’s greenest to date, powered by 100% renewable energy, supported by an £80m microgrid being developed by Sunderland City Council.
Envision AESC 海角视频 managing director Chris Caygill said: ‘‘We are extremely pleased with today’s decision, which means we can get on with the important job of building the plant and recruitment to fully resource the project team.
‘We are immensely proud of the work we have done with our strategic partners Nissan 海角视频 and Sunderland City Council so far, which has laid the foundations for affordable EVs and sustainable growth in the region for the next generations.
"As a growing global business, we will continue to push the boundaries of battery technology, which has made us a world leading battery supplier, with a safety record that boasts no critical incidents during the last 10 years."
Nissan Sunderland vice president, manufacturing, Alan Johnson said: “We welcome the news that planning permission has been approved for Envision AESC’S new Gigafactory.
“This is a fundamental part of our EV36Zero project, bringing together electric vehicle production, battery manufacturing and renewables, and we’re all excited to see the progress being made.”
Coun Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “We are delighted to see this hugely ambitious development move forward. IAMP is a hugely significant development, and its ability to attract and then support businesses in advanced manufacturing is second to none, in terms of the assets of the site itself and the talent pool we have to drive it.
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"We look forward to seeing Envision AESC move forward with this game-changing gigafactory on a site that we are proud to be bringing forward in partnership with South Tyneside Council.”
Coun Tracey Dixon, leader at South Tyneside Council, said: “This is a huge boost for the local economy, and indeed for 海角视频 Plc, part of a wider £1bn investment that will secure and create hundreds – thousands – of jobs.
“This is what we hoped IAMP would deliver when we embarked on this partnership with Sunderland City Council, and so, seeing Envision AESC’s plans advance is vindication of our commitment to this important job-creating site.”
IAMP has been led in partnership between Sunderland City Council and South Tyneside Council, working in partnership with contractor HBD, and has been backed with £42m from the 海角视频 Government through the Local Growth Fund through the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.