By ATN Editorial Team
Author: Johan Andersson, Commercial Managing Director, Volklec
Batteries have become one of the automotive industry’s most critical inputs, yet supply is bottlenecked by the UK’s heavy dependence on imports. Historically, we have left battery production to established overseas manufacturers, but with global demand for energy and power cells soon forecast to greatly outweigh supply, this model is no longer suitable.
The majority of global cell supply is controlled by a single country. It has become a fragile ecosystem plagued by long lead times, volatile pricing and inflexibility. This creates unpredictability and distorts cost structures across the automotive value chain, while also undermining investment decisions. Amidst growing activity in Europe and the USA, from both domestic companies and via the establishment of manufacturing plants with large Korean, Japanese and Chinese companies on home soil, overreliance in imports also severely weakens the UK’s international competitiveness.
For automotive manufacturers, supply chain fragility translates into industrial risk. Vehicle programmes are forced to lock in designs prematurely and production plans are constrained by cell availability. It stands to reason that securing a domestic supply is essential for tackling import dependence, but even this comes with its own set of unique challenges.
After all, designing and producing lithium-ion cells at volume requires deep process knowledge, specialist skills and hard-won industrialisation experience. While the UK excels in R&D and materials science, it does not possess the breadth of battery manufacturing know-how required to compete head-to-head with long-established global players who’ve had over a decade to build and fine tune their value chains.
Therefore, the most pragmatic route lies in combining hard won experience and expertise with domestic innovation. This would see proven battery IP harnessed by UK engineering and knowledge transfer to quickly build manufacturing capability, accelerating the journey to industrialisation and scale as a result.
At Volklec, we employ an East-to-West knowledge transfer approach, which allows us to take control of battery design, production, quality and future development, while delivering within the timescales required by the industry. Most importantly, this unique approach could minimise UK’s reliance on imports.
With battery demand expected to exceed 100 GWh by 2030, the UK runs the risk of a significant domestic supply shortage. This means that, without intervention, automotive OEMs will remain dependent on imports, maintaining their exposure to higher costs and risking supply interruptions. A clear commitment to buy British will provide companies like Volklec with the confidence to execute the accelerated roadmap to a sovereign value chain.
A sovereign battery supply chain would help to anchor high-value automotive manufacturing in the UK, securing a competitive, independent and resilient future for the industry for decades to come. At Volklec, we fully support the Commission’s call for urgent and coordinated action to expand domestic battery supply, and continue to support the UK’s automotive sector through our unique, UK-based, industrial-scale battery cell programme.
For battery technology news, click here.
