Friday 28th January 2022

Lotus partners with Britishvolt on new EV tech

Design sketch hints at all-new Lotus sports car now being developed with input from battery specialist

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As we know, Colin Chapman's philosophy was 'Simplify, then add lightness.' And Lotus has just signed a memorandum of understanding with battery cell specialist Britishvolt to maintain that objective as it heads towards its all-electric future. Lotus has committed itself to morphing from a UK sports car company to a 'global, all-electric performance car brand.' That's a challenge for a company rightly obsessed with low weight. Lithium-ion car batteries are hefty items - just look at the 2.4-tonne Porsche Taycan as evidence of that.

That's where this agreement with Britishvolt comes in. The newcomer sees itself as Britain's foremost investor in the research and development of battery cell technology. Its skills are in low-carbon, sustainably manufactured lithium-ion battery technology, for use in both electric transportation and sustainable energy storage. A key objective of this partnership will be producing fast-charging batteries, as well as optimising their energy density to reduce weight - which will be essential to something as sleek and low as the new sports car hinted at in Lotus's design sketch.

The two companies have sites in the West Midlands, which is seen as the UK's 'golden triangle' of battery excellence, and that should benefit logistics. The Lotus Advanced Technology Centre (LATC) opened in Wellesbourne in 2020, which is also the global headquarters of Lotus Engineering's consultancy division. It's part of a £100-million investment that also involved its manufacturing centre at Hethel - where the Emira sports car and Evija pure electric hypercar will be built. The Evija will become the first British electric hypercar when deliveries commence later this year.

Meanwhile, Britishvolt's global headquarters is based at a 5,000-square-metre facility at the MIRA Technology Park Campus near Coventry. Late last year it also gained planning for its Gigafactory in Northumberland. This site is on the former Blyth Power Station coal stocking yard, located in Cambois. It's slated to have a total capacity of over 30GWh by the end of the decade. It will also employ directly around 3,000 highly skilled people, plus over 5,000 more in the associated supply chains.

Matt Windle, Managing Director, Lotus Cars, commented: "Lotus is delighted to be collaborating with Britishvolt to develop new battery cell technology to showcase the thrilling performance that a Lotus EV sports car can deliver. These are the first exciting steps on the journey towards an all-new electric sports car from Lotus, and yet another step towards the transformation towards sustainable, renewable electricity stored in batteries."

He added, "Last year we committed Lotus to a pure electric future, and in the first month of this year we announce another significant step on that journey. In the coming months we will be unveiling the Type 132, an all-new and all-electric Lotus SUV and we've confirmed three more EVs are on the way."

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• Lotus reports best sales for a decade
• Lotus Emira V6 First Edition spec confirmed

[D-Angle]

I'm not the only one seeing a lot of the Esprit in that sketch, am I?

[Lotobear]

Lotus should concentrate of getting current models to the market rather than continuing this annoying, drip, drip, approach to marketing - it's really off putting and smacks of a lack of resources to actually deliver on all of these lofty promises.

[Hackney]

D-Angle said:

I'm not the only one seeing a lot of the Esprit in that sketch, am I?

An amphibious one at that.

[romac]

Hackney said:

D-Angle said:

I'm not the only one seeing a lot of the Esprit in that sketch, am I?

An amphibious one at that.

Yep, plus a bit of Radford Type 62?

Edited by romac on Friday 28th January 11:54

[leglessAlex]

Awesome. An electric offering from Lotus excites me far more than 4cyl Emira does. I have faith that Lotus can get the price, design and performance right.

[smilo996]

a UK sports car company to a 'global, all-electric performance car brand
Somehow a shame but inevitable.

[Billybobby99]

Not sure why they aren’t partnering with a company that can build solid state batteries. 80% more energy density per unit weight. Really the only future for sports cars.

[CABC]

Hackney said:

D-Angle said:

I'm not the only one seeing a lot of the Esprit in that sketch, am I?

An amphibious one at that.

my very first thought.
visions of Roger Moore

[kambites]

Billybobby99 said:

Not sure why they aren’t partnering with a company that can build solid state batteries. 80% more energy density per unit weight. Really the only future for sports cars.

I would imagine because they are in no way production ready, and wont be until many years after Lotus want to put out a product (if they ever are).

[blearyeyedboy]

CABC said:

Hackney said:

D-Angle said:

I'm not the only one seeing a lot of the Esprit in that sketch, am I?

An amphibious one at that.

my very first thought.
visions of Roger Moore

I like to think of it as a sketch of a prototype submerged just off the Norfolk coast.

[Roger Irrelevant]

article said:

A key objective of this partnership will be producing fast-charging batteries, as well as optimising their energy density to reduce weight

I know there are a lot of people who know a lot about battery tech on here so I'll ask this (possibly daft) question: Aren't the above objectives going to be shared by everybody else who is currently developing EV batteries? And isn't Li-ion a reasonably mature technology? If so, what are Britishvolt going to be able to do that all the large players who have been in the game for years already can't do now (or at least in the near future) at greater scale? I certainly don't want to sound like a naysayer - it all sounds great and I hope for the sake of the UK jobs it creates that it all happens - but from my (admittedly ignorant) point of view it smacks a bit of when a low-volume manufacturer says they're going to develop their very own ICE in collaboration with an engineering firm. What invariably happens there is that it quickly becomes apparent that somebody else already makes an ICE pretty close to what you want, so it's far easier and cheaper to just buy it from them. How come a similar thing wouldn't make sense here?

[anonymous-user]

Roger Irrelevant said:

article said:

A key objective of this partnership will be producing fast-charging batteries, as well as optimising their energy density to reduce weight

I know there are a lot of people who know a lot about battery tech on here so I'll ask this (possibly daft) question: Aren't the above objectives going to be shared by everybody else who is currently developing EV batteries? And isn't Li-ion a reasonably mature technology? If so, what are Britishvolt going to be able to do that all the large players who have been in the game for years already can't do now (or at least in the near future) at greater scale? I certainly don't want to sound like a naysayer - it all sounds great and I hope for the sake of the UK jobs it creates that it all happens - but from my (admittedly ignorant) point of view it smacks a bit of when a low-volume manufacturer says they're going to develop their very own ICE in collaboration with an engineering firm. What invariably happens there is that it quickly becomes apparent that somebody else already makes an ICE pretty close to what you want, so it's far easier and cheaper to just buy it from them. How come a similar thing wouldn't make sense here?

The fundamental thing that companies like BritishVolt can bring to the table is geographically local, high(ish) volume, just-on-time, manufacturing logistics for raw cells, enabling battery manufacturing to be streamlined and guaranteed. Today, we make a mear handful of cells in the UK. A cell line is highly automated, so doesn't require huge numbers of people, so theoretically we should be able to complete on cost with countries with a far lower labour overhead. Today, the biggest challange is securing your cells, especially for small volume players, where you can loose you entire years allocation of cells when the head of someone like VAG rings up Panasonic and says "i want ALL you cells"...... ;-)

[CABC]

Max_Torque said:

"i want ALL you cells"...... ;-)

said in Arnie's voice

[Roger Irrelevant]

Max_Torque said:

[much sense]

That all makes sense, cheers!

[Tyre Tread]

Oops: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64303149