Contractors chosen for £450m gigafactory

Contractors have been appointed to lead the design and project manage the build of the advanced car battery gigafactory at the International Advanced Manufacturing Park (IAMP), which will form part of a £1bn partnership between Nissan UK and Sunderland City Council.The Wates Group and Turner & Townsend have been chosen by Envision AESC to lead the project, which will span 123.6 acres of land in South Tyneside and Sunderland.Wates will develop a design that provides the infrastructure to support battery production by 2024 and will work alongside Turner & Townsend who will act as project manager and cost manager.The two companies will help to accelerate Envision AESC’s ambition to create a net zero carbon facility and achieve carbon neutrality across its operations by 2022.The £450m gigafactory is planned to work with Nissan UK and Sunderland City Council to create an electric vehicle (EV) hub to deliver the next generation of EV production at IAMP, and will play a critical role in decarbonising both UK manufacturing and transport.Planning permission was granted in October for the factory, which represents an initial 9GWh plant plant with potential future-phase investment by Envision AESC of £1.8bn.The plant could also generate 4,500 high-value green jobs in the region by 2030.