The North East could become the UK centre for electric vehicle battery manufacturing but not before there is serious investment in skills.
That's the message from two of the region's most influential figures in the automotive industry as the first session gets under way of a parliamentary inquiry into what is holding back electric vehicle battery production in the UK. Supply chain bosses and sector experts will give evidence to MPs in the first oral sessions of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee's inquiry in battery making capacity, which comes in the wake of Britishvolt's demise and the massive, multibillion dollar US Inflation Reduction Act which is said to be causing companies to assess UK investment.
Professor Colin Herron of the North East Battery Alliance has submitted evidence to the inquiry in which he points to a lack of specialist skills in the region and the UK as a whole. He calls for more support of schemes such as the Emergent Skills Project, funded by the Gatsby Foundation and focussing on vehicle electrification, as well as the Newcastle University-led Institute of Electrification and Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (IESAM), which will support training and skills development in the fields of power electronics, machines and drives.
