Britain’s Battery Future Report

Lord Sharma Excerpts

Monday 13th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

As the noble Baroness highlights, the UK understands the need for gigafactories. We have two gigafactories committed to delivering a combined 55 gigawatts of capacity by 2030. We largely agree with the thrust of the recommendations in the report. On the specific question of attracting another major OEM, led by my noble friend Lord Stockwood, the Minister for Investment, the Office for Investment and the department are engaging global EV manufacturers to invest further in the UK, and we are utilising our comprehensive support offer, including DRIVE35 and the battery innovation programme grants, as well as potential national wealth fund support, to proactively engage potential OEM investors.

[Lord Sharma (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister mentioned gigafactories, and we need to speed up the process of getting more gigafactories operational in the UK if we are not to miss out on investment and jobs. She also mentioned electric vehicles. The Labour Party manifesto did not include any road pricing measures, yet from 2028 we will have road pricing for electric vehicles and hybrids. Can the Minister tell the House whether she and her department are involved in any discussions across government on a further expansion of road pricing, perhaps to cover all vehicles on our roads?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

We are supporting the performance and efficacy of the ZEV mandate in the transition to additional electric vehicles on the roads and in line with our net-zero commitments. We are supporting that through a range of measures to support people to transition to zero-emission vehicles and to support the expansion of charging infrastructure. On the question of road pricing, let me follow up with the noble Lord and write to him on that question.