Electric Vehicle Batteries

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 12 January 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 1:36, 12 January 2021

Thank you very much for that information—that's very encouraging. This may seem a slightly odd question in the middle of this pandemic, but we do know that we have to stay focused on a green recovery, and to meet our climate and air pollution targets as well. We know that all new vehicles sold in the UK will need to be powered by renewable technology by 2030, and therefore existing vehicle production facilities using fossil fuels are a depleting asset, unless they are converting to electric or hydrogen. And I'm very pleased to hear from Hitachi that they are trialling the use of batteries on trains to run on main lines that the UK Government has failed to electrify. And that obviously includes the main line that runs west from Cardiff Central, so this could be highly relevant to avoiding the belching diesel fumes on trains heading west in the future. But trains are a niche product compared to cars, and I just wondered what can be done to really work with existing UK vehicle manufacturers to see that Wales has a unique offer in terms of our engineering and compound semiconductor expertise in which to site electric vehicle battery production at scale.