Nonetheless, Popham urged caution, citing a “pragmatic” approach to growing the business. He explained: “I saw some of the attempts that have failed in the UK and thought: ‘what model will actually work?’ It was clear that a more pragmatic approach was required, a derisk approach.
“What I mean by derisk is getting to market quicker and having modest investments, rather than massive investment over a long period of time [before beginning production].
“That led us to include that we needed partnerships in there – manufacturing partnerships and technical partnerships. And that’s what we’ve been working on.”
Popham said this approach “gives confidence to investors”, hinting at the sour mood felt by many after the 2024 collapse of UK battery start-up Britishvolt.
He explained: “The initial energy cell production is already funded by the founders, so we will be going out with a funding round to support the unique line for the power cell.
“Obviously we will need external funding when we springboard into our own factory, but with that, progressive proof of delivery is appropriate as well for raising investment.”
He also cited the benefit of the collaboration with Far East Battery: “We get economies of scale because we’ve got their access to their economies of scale. From day one, we’ll be buying material through them, and as we ramp up production, then we will embark upon a localisation program, localising in the UK/Europe.
“We will do that for the cell that has been produced already. We will have that in production by the end of the year.
“The agreement also allows us to import cells from [Far East Battery] as well, identical cells, so we can get them into customers now for testing, engineering programs or for use in end products immediately – and we can supplement that volume as we ramp up our own production, if customers need more cells.
“We will repeat that whole process again with the [more powerful] cell in a year’s time.”