The committee concluded that a government scheme intended to support the establishment of ‘gigafactories’ with the Automotive Transformation Fund is insufficient for the scale of ambition. The entire fund is worth £500m but a single Gigafactory costs £2-4bn to establish.
There is one official Gigafactory in Europe (Giga Berlin), which will manufacture battery packs and powertrains for Tesla EVs. Deutsche Welle estimates that the factory will cost €4bn, of which the EU contributed €1bn from the €2.9bn European Battery Innovation fund.
Witnesses told the committee that national governments in other European countries are supporting factories with £750m each.
There are no so-called gigafactories in the UK, although the struggling automotive sector has been heartened in recent months with openings of EV battery plants in Blyth and Sunderland, and potential for a plant in Coventry. In order to meet ambitions for the phase-out of vehicles with internal combustion...