An expert panel on battery materials has warned a House of Commons committee that Britain is lagging behind in the electric battery industry race. During the Business and Trade Committee session, business consultants and executives stated that the country missed the boat in the first wave of the electric battery revolution, failing to enhance the development of a triumphant supply chain. The panel cautioned that without swift creation of a supply chain, the UK will risk losing its automotive industry, which could relocate to central Europe. The UK currently has one small 1.9 GWh Nissan plant and lacks a strategy for the industry. The government plans to combat this problem by funding battery research with £211m to deliver 100,000 jobs in battery gigafactories and the battery supply chain. Chief economist of the Faraday Institution, Stephen Gifford, says that the UK needs investment and initial planning for the development of battery production plants, as there is an industry projection to require ten 20GWh battery production plants by 2040, with five in production by 2030. The panel also suggested that the UK’s role in the world is heavily dependent on critical minerals, such as lithium-ion batteries, and urged the country to have its own gigafactories and chemical plants to fuel its batteries.