Part of a planned Centre for Electrification, the proposed factory could create over 6,000 jobs in the local area and the 5.7m sq ft gigafactory would form one of the main parts of the planned UK Centre for Electrification, an investment zone in the West Midlands.
EVE has yet to confirm anything but sources with knowledge of the talks have said that it is interested in the project, which would involve a partnership with local councils and Coventry airport, where the plant will be located.
EVE is said to be considering spending an initial £1.2bn on the project, according to the Sunday Times, which first reported the discussions. Further work is expected to expand the site, which would make it almost twice the size of Nissan’s electric battery factory in Sunderland.
Should this project take shape it would follow Tata Group’s £4bn pledge to build an electric car battery gigafactory in Britain, made last year, and would be a significant boost to the UK’s automotive industry and to battery research here in the UK.
However, while the factory would be in an investment zone and planning permission for a large-scale battery manufacturing facility has already been approved, any investment is likely to be contingent on hundreds of millions of pounds of UK subsidies.
