UK battery ‘gigafactory’ plans huge expansion as electric car demand soars

Envision's Sunderland plant produces batteries for the Nissan Leaf and other electric vehicles

The Chinese owner of the UK's only large-scale battery factory has revealed plans for a big expansion that will put the plant in Sunderland among the biggest electric vehicle facilities in Europe.

Envision said annual capacity at the plant would eventually rise to 38 gigawatt hours (GWh), an increase from a previous plan of 11GWh that was announced in July as part of a supply deal for the Japanese carmaker Nissan's Sunderland plant.