By Nick Carey

LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Electrical automobile battery startup Britishvolt mentioned on Friday it had chosen a web site in northern England to construct a £2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) manufacturing facility that ought to begin manufacturing in 2023.

The corporate, which to this point has mentioned it has raised about £10 million, mentioned the plant within the port of Blyth could be in-built three levels, using as much as 3,000 folks and producing at the least 300,000 lithium-ion batteries a yr by 2027.

Britishvolt has utilized for backing from a £1 billion British authorities fund set as much as help the mass manufacturing of batteries and assist the auto business shift in direction of making electrical autos (EVs).

The fund was introduced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson final month as a part of plans to ban the sale of latest automobiles and vans that run solely on petrol and diesel automobiles from 2030. Hybrid autos can nonetheless be offered till 2035.

Britishvolt is the one firm to this point to announce plans to construct new battery manufacturing in Britain.

Chief technique officer Isobel Sheldon mentioned Britishvolt’s batteries would carry out 20% to 25% higher than Tesla Inc’s , the electrical carmaker that dominates international EV gross sales.

She mentioned the corporate was elevating extra money and contemplating a inventory market itemizing.

A wave of EV-related startups have gone public all over the world this yr, usually involving a reverse merger with a particular goal acquisition firm (SPAC). The highest performer amongst them is battery startup QuantumScape Corp.

China now hosts roughly 80% of the world’s lithium-ion cell manufacturing, however the European Union plans to spice up native output and could possibly be self-sufficient by 2025.

Europe has 15 large-scale battery cell factories underneath development, together with Northvolt’s crops in Sweden and Germany, Chinese language battery maker CATL’s German facility, and South Korean agency SK Innovation’s second plant in Hungary.

Tesla can be constructing a automotive and battery manufacturing facility in Germany.

($1 = 0.7516 kilos) (Reporting by Nick Carey; Modifying by Edmund Blair)