Business News ...from page 13 The report predicts UK battery


demand will be sufficient to support one UK gigafactory from 2022 and a second from 2025. However, it could take up to five


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14 CHAMBERLINK February 2020


years for a plant to materialise, with considerable time spent on locating a suitable site, securing permits, design and construction. Over the longer term, electric


vehicle battery production in the UK is forecast to reach 130 Gigwatt hours (GWh) per year by 2040 – enough to support eight gigafactories. By comparison, a small plant in Sunderland utilised by Nissan


Sponsored by: Profit-Growth Unlimited


currently has the capacity to make just 2GWh. So, the Government must act


fast or the UK risks missing out. Furthermore, a surge in demand


for electric vehicles is set to be aided by a tax break for company car drivers. From April, those who choose an emissions-free electric fleet model will pay no benefit-in- kind tax for the year as part of new efforts to encourage motorists to switch to green vehicles. The rate does rise to one per


cent from April 2021 and two per cent from April 2022, but this is far below the rates for comparable non-electric cars. “The danger here is that the UK


Our region must invest


in innovation By Steve Allen, president, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce


innovate. Innovation is key to our region’s ability to compete on the global stage. Last year, my law firm Mills & Reeve published its biannual report highlighting the 50 most innovative businesses in the region. Innovation has been a driving force of our regional economy since at least the industrial revolution One of the reasons for our region’s success is our


O


ability to adapt and innovate and whilst it is undoubtedly true that our manufacturing sector has declined in favour of tourism and service industries, last year’s Innovation 50 report ably demonstrated that innovation is alive and kicking.


‘Our region is the obvious destination for the UK’s first major battery production plant and at the Chamber we will do everything we can to support this initiative’


From start-ups setting out to disrupt the market to


more established businesses taking steps to grow into new sectors, it’s clear that innovation remains very much within our region’s DNA. We are, however, competing in a global market.


Countries such as the US and China can use the size and growth of their domestic markets to develop technology and get it to market in relatively short order. Regrettably, in the UK, the ability to monetise our


innovative designs and ideas falls short of our key competitors. While successive governments have tried to promote technological innovation in order to ensure that the UK benefits from its world-class science base, there are still a myriad of examples where British innovation has been snapped up and developed by foreign entities.


ne of my key themes as president of the Chamber is to encourage our members to invest in research and development and


Steve Allen This is why I welcome the recent visit to China by


leaders of our region’s three major cities, led by mayor Andy Street. One of the reasons for that visit was to meet potential investors and identify what our region needs to do to establish the UK’s first major battery production plant in the UK. The automotive sector is crucial to the growth and


prosperity of our region. Some 46,500 people are employed directly in manufacturing and across the wider automotive supply chain. Currently £1.5bn-worth of UK-based research and


development is carried out in the city region, more than 45 per cent of the UK’s total through innovation and research centres, autonomous vehicle test beds and major production plants. In China, the government has already set out a series


of policies to create the world’s largest market for electric vehicles. These include consumer subsidies, production quotas for Chinese manufacturers and allowing consumers to immediately purchase an electric vehicle without the long delays encountered by consumers waiting for conventional engines. If we are not to fall behind in this crucial sector it is


essential that we invest now. Our region is the obvious destination for the UK’s first major battery production plant and at the Chamber we will do everything we can to support this initiative. The history of our region ably demonstrates our


ability to adapt to change and it is difficult to think of a more crucial need to do so than to harness our sector expertise and be a world leader in the shift from petrol/diesel to electric vehicles.


This article was originally published in Birmingham Post


misses out on investment in a big growth industry,” adds David Bailey. “Assemblers with operations in


the UK are already agreeing deals with battery suppliers outside the UK and that makes future EV assembly less likely to take place here as firms look to shorten supply chains (something we’ve found in our research on manufacturing and ‘reshoring’) and co-locate battery and vehicle assembly. The basic point is that is we want EV production in the UK in the future we’ll need batteries made here too, and on a large scale.”


• China trip promotes West Midlands – page 54


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