Battery manufacturer Automotive Energy Supply Company (AESC) has officially opened its new battery factory in Sunderland, northern England, and begun production, around three years after construction started, the company said.
The plant has an initial annual production capacity of 15.8 gigawatt-hours (GWh), higher than earlier projections, and will supply batteries for a range of applications, including the new Nissan LEAF, whose production at Nissan’s nearby Sunderland vehicle plant has also just begun.
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Plans for the Sunderland facility have been revised several times since AESC first announced the project in 2021, when initial capacity was set at 9 GWh. At the groundbreaking ceremony in December 2022, the company projected 12 GWh at launch. AESC has not disclosed how much capacity could be added in later expansion phases, though industry discussions have cited potential output of up to 35 GWh.
The new gigafactory is located close to Nissan’s long-standing Sunderland manufacturing site, enabling local supply of battery cells for the third-generation LEAF. AESC, which was originally Nissan’s battery division before being spun off and sold, has produced battery cells in Sunderland since 2012, though at a much smaller scale of about 1.9 GWh for earlier Nissan electric models.
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AESC said the new plant includes the largest cleanroom in the UK, designed to manufacture battery cells to high quality standards. Once fully operational, the facility is expected to employ around 1,000 people, a fourfold increase since AESC UK was established in 2019. The company said recruitment is ongoing.
“The launch of our new UK electric vehicle battery gigafactory represents a significant leap in battery technology,” said Jim Marley, plant director of AESC UK. “It will power the new Nissan LEAF and drive the electrification of the British car industry to a new level.”
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The start of production in Sunderland coincided with the launch of battery cell series production by PowerCo, the battery subsidiary of Volkswagen, at its Salzgitter plant in Germany, highlighting the accelerating build-out of battery manufacturing capacity across Europe.