Coventry offered £35m to fund gigafactory driving UK’s electrified future

Coventry City Council has been offered up to £35 million in funding towards a new gigafactory in the Coventry and Warwick Gigapark investment zone.

The West Midlands Gigafactory would be one of four sites within the zone and serve as the UK’s Centre of Electrification, pioneering developments in battery technology and manufacturing to help power a cleaner future for the country.

If the funding is approved, an initial £23 million would be put towards highways and infrastructure work to prepare the site for a battery manufacturer and the associated supply chain.

City councillors announced last October that they were in talks with a number of leading manufacturers in Asia, including Tata Group – though the Mumbai-based firm has since turned instead to Somerset for its new £4 billion facility.

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Nonetheless, once a deal is secured, the development is anticipated to attract up to £2.5 billion inward investment and create as many as 6,000 highly skilled jobs directly, as well as thousands more across the wider supply chain.

Cllr Jim O’Boyle, cabinet member for jobs, regeneration and climate change, said: “Coventry is the historical home of the automotive industry in the UK, where much of the cutting-edge technology that defined the global car industry last century was created here in our city.

“Now, as we stand at the dawn of a new electric age, we fully intend for Coventry to be very front of the green industrial revolution.

“The West Midlands Gigafactory site is the only site in the UK that sits within an investment zone, has planning permission for a large-scale battery manufacturing facility, and has confirmed customers interested from a number of global battery manufacturers. 

“This project has the potential to attract more investors to our city that will bring jobs and prosperity to our residents.”

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