Almost a decade after playing home to Europe’s first mass-produced electric car, the UK is at risk of becoming a footnote in the global auto industry’s shift to battery-powered vehicles. The UK lacks the cell and pack factories automakers will need to support their transition away from the internal combustion engine. In what could be a fresh blow to British carmaking, the country’s top auto manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover, is in talks with Northvolt AB and SVolt Energy Technology Co. about supplying batteries for a range of EVs it may assemble in Slovakia, according to people familiar with the matter. Unless battery investment picks up, carmakers may only accelerate their exodus from what was once the world’s second-biggest auto manufacturing base. The last few years, the UK fell outside the top 15. “It’s about to be too late to preserve the UK role as a major automotive producer,” said Andy Palmer, the former CEO of Aston Martin who also helped spearhead Nissan’s creation of the Leaf EV built in Sunderland, England. “Unless there’s either a carrot or a stick to incentivize battery production in the UK, it’s only a matter of time before the automobile industry here becomes a niche industry that caters to brands such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley.” As the move to electric vehicles redraws manufacturing maps, the UK is endangered by scarce supply of raw materials, expensive energy, meager government incentives and potential Brexit-related tariffs. While the country has pumped hundreds of millions of pounds into battery-technology research, this has spurred minimal production.
Source: Bloomberg
