Ricardo will leverage its expertise in niche volume manufacturing, battery R&D, second life and recycling, complex supply chain management and strategic consultancy to ‘level up’ the UK supply chain in critical electric vehicle components. (Photo quoted from Ricardo’s website)

As part of its mission to support the decarbonization of the global transport and energy sectors, Ricardo, a world-class environmental, engineering and strategic consulting company, has announced that it has received Government funding to assess the commercial viability of a facility to assemble battery packs for UK manufacturers which produce fewer than 10,000 electrified vehicles per year.

These UK electrified vehicle manufacturers include some of the world’s best known prestige brands which create luxury cars, special vehicles, or off-highway machines for a customer base in the low thousands. This compares with the hundreds of thousands or millions of vehicles produced for the mass market. Funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Automotive Transformation Fund supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the economic study will consider how to meet the particular battery hardware needs of these diverse manufacturers across a wide range of business sectors, by ensuring a UK supply chain in electric vehicle components.

As part of the study, Ricardo will assess how the proposed facility could help minimise the risk of scaling up the innovation of new battery concepts to niche volumes. Harnessing its world-renowned expertise in batteries, the company will also explore opportunities to minimise the environmental impact of battery pack manufacture through ‘second life processing’ and recycling of core elements from construction.

This award of funding adds further to Ricardo’s credentials in boosting the UK’s electric vehicle manufacturing sector. Ricardo is leading the UK-ALUMOTOR consortium, supported by the Driving Electric Revolution Challenge fund through UK Research and Innovation, which will establish a UK supply chain for electric machines to deliver next generation sustainable electric motors. 

(IRuniverse)