An £11.3m battery production project led by Hyperbat, a joint venture between Unipart Manufacturing Group and Fortescue Zero, has created 50 highly skilled jobs and a commercial agreement to supply battery packs for a global customer.
The H1perChain project, supported by main consortium partners Unipart Manufacturing Group, Fortescue Zero (formerly WAE), Coventry University, and Direc-Tec, aims to develop a process and emerging supply chain capability for manufacturing high-performance batteries in the UK.
More than 50 guests from industry and academia were invited to Hyperbat in Coventry for the project conclusion event, which included a guided tour of the physical pilot line, and a presentation from H1perChain experts on the novel industry 4.0 digitalisation platform that will underpin the development of a UK supply chain.
Carol Burke, Unipart Manufacturing Group Managing Director, said:
“We are delighted to be part of this exciting project at Hyperbat’s state-of-the-art production facility in Coventry that will help shape the future of domestic battery production.
This project builds on Unipart Manufacturing Group’s many years of expertise in the manufacturing and engineering industry, and maintains its position at the forefront of new technologies by helping deliver this step-change in high performance battery costs and scalability, that will achieve significant and positive outcomes for the UK.
We are proud to have helped create hundreds of skills development opportunities as the project enters into its first commercial agreement, and we look forward to exploring further opportunities already in the pipeline.”
Jon Bell, Project Lead at Hyperbat, said:
“If the UK is going to compete in the electrification race, it is critical that we have a domestic battery making capability and a supportive supply chain in place.
The Supplier Portal is one of the most exciting parts of H1perchain and gives us an IOT platform that the wider supply chain can now use to engage with Hyperbat on future activities.
By creating a ‘single source of truth’ of key manufacturing process data, bills of material and quality accreditation requirements, we are making it easy for companies – looking to supply components into battery packs – to get involved.
We’ve onboarded 36 UK suppliers to the system so far, but the next target is to increase this to 200 by the end of 2024. This will include firms making busbars, aluminium castings, injection moulding specialists and those supplying consumables – to name just a few engineering disciplines we are looking to talk to.”
The conclusion of this project is set to significantly boost the UK’s position in the electrification race, paving the way for future advancements in sustainable energy technology.