The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), a pioneering manufacturing development facility on the outskirts of Coventry, offers a tantalising glimpse of Britain's not-too-distant industrial future. Jon Excell visited the facility and spoke to its managing director Jeff Pratt. There's little doubt that the UK stands on the verge of a battery manufacturing revolution. It's estimated that by the end of the next decade Britain could be home to as many as seven giant battery gigafactories: huge facilities capable of producing the high volumes of batteries required to satisfy the automotive industry's inexorable and rapid shift to electrification. Indeed, it's becoming increasingly clear that without these factories - given the high cost of batteries - the commercial case for making cars in the UK will disappear.
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