Next steps for new electric vehicle battery gigafactory in Sunderland
Plans for a new electric vehicle battery gigafactory have taken a step closer to becoming a reality, following a decision by city councillors.
Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee, at an extraordinary meeting this week, approved plans for part of the International Advanced Manufacturing Park (IAMP) in Washington.
This included a building to be used for the “manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles”, as well as an assembly and warehousing building, an office building, sub-stations, a gatehouse, ancillary compounds and structures and associated infrastructure, landscaping and parking.
The plans were submitted earlier this year by AESC UK, a world-leading battery technology company and manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for the automotive industry.
The company already has one plant in the city and a second plant under construction, with new plans for ‘AESC Plant 3’ aiming to expand its operations further.
According to planning documents, the new plant aims to “meet demand with capacity to produce 12 GWh of batteries per year, with an associated assembly and warehousing building and a headquarters office for AESC UK which will operate as a shared facility with AESC Plant 2”.
A report from Sunderland City Council’s planning department recommended the plans for approval and noted the benefits of the new plant, including job creation.
Information from the applicant, included in the council report, said the scheme represents £500 million of ‘initial capital investment’ and would support thousands of construction jobs and jobs in the supply chain during the construction period.
It was also noted that the site would ”employ over 1,000 people in Sunderland, taking AESC’s workforce in Sunderland to over 2,500 high-skill, high-value jobs”, as well as supporting a “further 800 indirect and induced full-time equivalent jobs” in the wider supply chain.
Council planning officers, in the committee report prepared for decision-makers this week, noted the site was located partially within the Green Belt.
However, it was argued that “very special circumstances” existed to justify the plan and outweigh harm to the Green Belt, including the need for the AESC facility, the lack of “suitable alternative sites” and the “very special socio-economic and environmental benefits”.
To offset the Green Belt harm, applicants agreed to provide “significant on-site habitat enhancement”, as well as off-site mitigation in other areas of Sunderland around ‘farmland birds’.
The city council’s ecologist also had no objection to the development, subject to planning conditions and biodiversity proposals.
After being put to the vote at a meeting on Monday, September 9, at City Hall, Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee approved the electric vehicle battery gigafactory proposals.
However, due to the scale of the development and its location partially within the Green Belt, the application was referred to the Secretary of State, who will make a final decision in future.
Councillor Stephen Foster welcomed the application and said it was “much-needed in this area”.
Councillor Martin Haswell also credited the economic benefits of the scheme and the mitigation provided by the applicant around Green Belt impacts.
He added: “I enjoyed reading this report as there’s a lot of positives coming out of it in terms of job creation in the area and attracting more sustainable industry to this area as well.
“The development will give good higher-paying jobs which will be really useful to our community and our economy.
“I think the loss of the Green Belt space is really disappointing but unfortunately it has to happen.
“I would like to really credit the offsetting that has been done on this one.
“I haven’t necessarily seen this level of effort from an applicant in putting in that offsetting of the Green Belt space so that’s welcome as well, even though it is disappointing to lose it on the whole”.
The planning application for the additional 12GWh (per annum) plant is the latest stage of a study into increasing capacity to meet growing demand for AESC’s batteries, that was announced last year.
AESC’s original 1.8GWh plant was the first electric vehicle (EV) battery gigafactory in Europe when it started operations in 2012.
Construction of a second UK plant in Sunderland began in December, 2022.
Council planning documents added that once the plants, including the third plant, are operational, AESC will “have capacity to build batteries for ten times as many EVs a year than at present”.
It was also argued that the new development would “build on AESC UK’s existing operations and investment” and “promote Sunderland as the heart of automotive electrification activities in the UK”.
AESC is Nissan’s battery partner and the car giant unveiled its EV36Zero initiative during a visit to the Sunderland factory by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July, 2021, aimed at making the Wearside plant a global centre of excellence in electric vehicle production.
Speaking at the time, Nissan’s then chief operating officer, Ashwani Gupta, said: “This is a landmark day for Nissan, our partners, the UK and the automotive industry as a whole. Nissan EV36Zero will transform the idea of what is possible for our industry and set a roadmap for the future for all.
“We reached a new frontier with the Nissan LEAF, the world’s first mass-market all-electric vehicle. Now, with our partners, Nissan will pioneer the next phase of the automotive industry as we accelerate towards full electrification and carbon neutrality.”