COVENTRY’S HYPERBAT WINS £MULTI-MILLION LOTUS EVIJA CONTRACT

One of the UK’s leading manufacturers of high-performance electric vehicle (EV) battery packs has sealed a multi-millionpound contract to supply batteries to Lotus for its new all-electric Evija, said to be the world’s most powerful production car.

Hyperbat is a joint venture between Williams Advanced Engineering and Unipart Manufacturing. Based in Coventry, it manufactures high-voltage batteries for high-performance and specialist applications to support the scale-up of EV production in the UK.

It will manufacture the 90kWh lithium-ion battery packs destined for use in the first British-made all-electric hypercar.

Full production will take place at the firm’s new production line at Unipart Manufacturing Group’s site in Coventry.

Andy Davis, Director at Hyperbat, said: “To win a contract with Lotus to supply battery packs for the world’s most powerful production car demonstrates the exceptional technology and manufacturing expertise we have at Hyperbat.”

The manufacturing process involves assembling 12,000 components split across

500 unique parts and 100,000 welds in each pack. This is a complex process for which Hyperbat employs a unique system using cameras, sensors and vision systems to monitor data for each of the battery components.

Andy added: “We are one of the few companies to have invested in this advanced manufacturing technology which is enhanced by the research and development work carried out by the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering which o ers on-site support to our R&D team and are a perfect example of industry and academia working in partnership.”

Mark Edwards, Executive Director, Engineering at Lotus Cars, added: “We have been working with Unipart and Hyperbat for several years and are confident in their ability to deliver the quality of product and the level of Tier 1 manufacturing support Lotus needs for such a prestigious project.”

Andy Davis added: “Hyperbat is now working with its shareholders and partners across government, industry and academia to ensure it continues to develop the skills needed for the UK to lead the way in battery manufacturing.”

Hyperbat is part of a consortium of businesses using 5G-enabled technology to speed up its manufacturing processes.

Partnered with BT, Ericsson and NVIDIA to benefit from the world’s first 5G virtual reality (VR) ‘digital twin’ solution, the company can leverage remote teams in di erent parts of the country to connect, collaborate and interact using a virtual 3D engineering model.