UCL helps shape UK’s battery research strategy for electric car revolution

UCL has been selected to be a founding partner in the creation of a new institute that will help Britain develop battery technologies that will drive the electric vehicle (EV) revolution. UCL is one of seven universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Newcastle, Southampton and Warwick that have founded the independent Faraday Battery Institute backed with an initial £65m from the government. With a HQ based at Harwell, Oxfordshire, the Faraday Institute will shape a research strategy aimed at making the UK a global leader in battery technology, bringing together, guiding and supporting researchers throughout the country. The government wants to see the UK in the vanguard of the battery revolution, competing with the US, China, Japan and Korean in not only developing the technology but also in  manufacturing, a market that could be worth as much as £50bn a year. Britain previously led the way in developing the first rechargeable lithium-ion batteries through the work of John Goodenough and colleagues at Oxford University in the 1980s, however, the technology was commercialised in the Far East and elsewhere. The UK is now in a strong position to be a world leader in this field, already manufacturing a quarter of Europe's electric vehicles and having Western Europe's only operational automotive battery manufacturing plant. UCL has been chosen to be one of the founding partners because of its expertise and facilties in battery research and technology through work led by Professor Dan Brett (chemical engineering), Professor Jawwad Darr (chemistry) and Dr Paul Shearing (chemical engineering).