Britishvolt Hams Hall battery R&D centre to create up to 150 jobs

Paul Franklin praised the site's rail, freight and motorway links

Up to 150 jobs could be created with the opening of a battery development centre in the West Midlands.

Britishvolt said the Hams Hall site would help refine electric vehicle battery technologies and serve its planned gigafactory in Northumberland.

The firm said it would invest £200m in the Warwickshire site, due to open next year.

Paul Franklin from Britishvolt said the site would allow it to tap into automotive expertise in the area.

"Hams Hall has a real rich history as a former power station, so there's real opportunity for us to plug into the electricity network, but also it's an automotive hub," he said.

"We've got the Jaguar factory... next door and we've BMW's engine plant just around the corner so it's a great location for that, but also the transportation links."

The factory will open next year, the firm said

It follows plans being backed in January for a huge electric car battery factory at Coventry Airport expected to create about 6,000 jobs.

But Professor David Bailey from Birmingham Business School said he had concerns that so far no investors were committing to mass battery production at the site.

"So far, there hasn't been an investor and my fear is big scale production could bypass the region and go to the north east which has lots of cheap land, availability of renewable energy and things like free ports so we've got work even harder to get any investment out of Coventry."

Hams Hall will become a prototype development centre to serve a planned base in Northumberland

Coventry City Councillor Jim O'Boyle said he believed investors would come forward and that discussions were under way with firms to use the Coventry site.

"I'm confident we've got the skills, we've got the location we've got the people, and we've got the businesses here in the region to make this happen," he said.

"Let's make it happen because if we don't do it now, we could lose it forever."