The Business and Trade Committee has today published the Government’s response to
its Batteries and electric vehicles report.
The Committee’s report set seven clear tests for the Government’s
plan for EV vehicles to avoid a UK ‘gigagap’ and warned 160,000
jobs in the automotive sector would be imperilled unless the
government acted with ambition to set out a long term vision for
what it wanted the industry to look like by 2030 with a clear
plan of action to go with it.
In its response, the Government pointed to its Advanced
Manufacturing Plan and UK Battery Strategy to demonstrate its
support for the industry, but Committee Chair warned that the Government was
failing key tests set by the Committee of Britain was to build a
domestic industry delivering 100 GWh of capacity by 2030.
In its report, the Committee also sought assurances that Tata’s
investment in a new gigafactory could also supply other UK
carmakers besides Jaguar Land Rover. The Government, despite its
investment of hundreds of millions of pounds in this and
Envision’s site at Nissan, said that this was a matter for
private companies.
, Chair of the Business and Trade
Committee, said:
“The EV industry is a critical industry for Britain’s future and
if we fail to act now, we risk creating a ‘gigagap’ that
threatens the jobs of 160,000 people working in the UK automotive
industry. The UK needs 100GWh of battery manufacturing capacity
by 2030, but we did not see a clear government plan to deliver
that ambition.
“We know that we can’t win an international subsidy race but that
means we need a smart framework of policy for the future.
“That’s why our committee set seven clear tests for ministers to
meet if they are serious about building a world-beating EV
vehicles industry. At best, the Government’s response shows they
pass barely half the tests we set, and some ‘passes’ were not
convincing.
“We were pleased to see our progress around tariff-free trade,
skills, critical minerals and long term R&D. Those
ingredients are really important.
“But frankly I’m alarmed that the government has no plan to even
benchmark the sort of industrial support might be needed to
ensure Britain becomes one of the world’s favourite places to
invest. And nor did the government take our advice providing
long-term certainty on energy costs for battery makers, or the
designation of key sites for building the gigafactories of the
future.”
“Ministers’ preferred approach is to leave as much as possible to
the market but that’s not how our competitors are behaving. We
can’t merely gently accelerate into a global race for a key
industry of tomorrow while others are going full throttle. The
risk we now run is that a domestic industry won’t be built as
fast as it might be, and the big global players might look
elsewhere.”
Notes to editors
The UK is the 6th largest car manufacturer in Europe
with the sale of vehicles and parts contributing over £13 billion
to the UK economy in 2022.
Around 160,000 people are employed in the automotive
manufacturing industry in the UK, supporting an estimated 350,000
UK-wide.
Battery electric vehicles are currently the most popular type of
zero emission vehicles globally. They are not the only option.
Other fuels (e.g. hydrogen) can also be used to deliver zero or
low-emission vehicles.
Over 50% of the world’s lithium, cobalt and graphite refining
takes place in China.
The Government announced a
package for £4.5 billion for strategic manufacturing sectors,
Including £2 billion for the automotive sector to support the
development of zero emissions vehicles. This was made on 17
October, too late to be included in the Committee’s report.
You can find the full Batteries for electric vehicles
report on the following link after publication: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/365/business-and-trade-committee/news/198543/btc-batteries-for-electric-vehicle-report-published-23-24/
