Thurso battery company AMTE Power to build new facility in Dundee and create over 200 jobs
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A Caithness battery cell manufacturer is to build its first "MegaFactory" in Dundee and create more than 200 highly-skilled jobs.
AMTE Power has stressed that its plans will complement the company's existing facility in Thurso, build on the the expertise it has gained there and give a boost to the UK's ambitions to produce home-grown battery cells for a net zero society.
The new factory, which is expected to be operational towards the end of 2025, will produce the high performance battery cells to help electrify vehicles, homes, and industries for the country’s energy transition.
The company is one of the only businesses in the UK producing battery cells and the proposed new site at Dundee’s Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc would ensure it can scale up to mass manufacturing volumes, respond to high levels of interest for its products from customers in the automotive and energy storage markets and get them to market quicker.
The company, which also works with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in Coventry, is in discussion with Scottish Enterprise about its plans. AMTE wants to use the Dundee as a template for future factories.
Company chief executive Kevin Brundish described the decision to build a MegaFactory in Dundee as "a quantum leap" and said: "It will be a platform from which we can harness our advanced in-house capabilities to build further factories to meet the huge demand for battery cells – allowing us to rapidly scale up production and fast-track the path to achieving net zero.
"Battery cells are fundamental to enabling the UK’s energy transition and with this investment, we will play a key role in electrifying the vehicles, homes and industries of the future. The site at Dundee is the ideal location for a MegaFactory, it has local industry knowledge and is close to our current and future customers in energy storage."
The new factory will directly create up to 215 highly skilled jobs and around 800 in the supply chain.
Councillor John Alexander, leader of Dundee City Council, said: "This is an exciting proposal which has the potential to deliver hundreds of direct and supply chain jobs."
AMTE has been making batteries at its production base at Denchi House in Thurso Business Park for over 30 years.
