The newly appointed strategy boss of the West Midlands Gigafactory (WMGf) project, Richard Moore, has said the UK needs to start establishing a comprehensive EV battery production network if it's to meet the projected industry demand over the coming years.
Moore was hired by the firm – which recently obtained provision planning permission to break ground at its 130-acre site in Coventry – to kick-start its search for a battery-manufacturing partner.
He started his engineering career in the aerospace industry, eventually moving to BMW Rover and its successor MG Rover. He joined Jaguar Land Rover in 2011 as advanced powertrain chief engineer and soon after moved to its electric powertrain division, playing a key role in Jaguar I-Pace development. In 2019, he joined Lotus, overseeing projects including the Evija electric hypercar.
We caught up with Moore for an update on the WMGf project, as well as the battery-manufacturing landscape in the UK. He also offered a broader look at the technologies set to shake up the industry over the next decade.
Why choose WMGf?
“My background is electrification. I've worked on traction batteries. And as a result of that, I know all the major cell suppliers really quite well.
“I've got very senior colleagues in the Faraday Institute, so I'm pretty tuned into what UK PLC needs, and I want to help achieve that. If you look at the data that's flying around – and I trust the data, because the Faraday team knows what [it’s] talking about – we need to have 100GWh capacity by the end of this decade. We need to double that by the end of the following decade.
“At the moment, we've a realistic line of sight [projecting] fractions of that. We need to make sure that all the options that are being studied – not just WMGf – bear fruit if we're going to hit those figures.
“If you look at the demand, it’s not really a buyer’s market; it’s a seller’s market. All the suppliers who are laying down these operational footprints to a massive degree in Asia – and now Europe – can sell capacity quite easily. They’re in a position where they can actually choose their major customers.
“So the UK needs it because there’s the demand. But sometimes I get a bit nervous: I think that security of supply for battery cells is a modern version of security of supply for steel 20-30 years ago. And the UK needs that security of supply, so we’ve got to start laying down our footprint.”
How are discussions with OEMs progressing?
“We're talking to the OEMs. But it's not just the automotive industry; we’re talking to the aerospace industry as well. It's all sectors. So off-road, rail, bus – all of them.
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