AMTE Power plans to invest in its purpose-built battery cell manufacturing facility in Thurso and said its proposed Dundee megafactory will be scaled up to a gigafactory.

Following the troubles which beset the Britishvolt project in Northumberland, AMTE Power chief executive Alan Hollis said the company had “a clear focus on positioning the business for success through commercialisation of its products and scaling up of the organisation to support our ambitious plans to accelerate routes to market.”

AMTE Power has the second largest manufacturing capacity in the UK. Investment in the Thurso facility should begin this year.

Dundee’s former Michelin site remains the preferred location for the company’s megafactory, with the long-term objective of building it to gigafactory scale, said the company.

Production of Ultra Safe and Ultra High Power cells should begin at the proposed Dundee facility in 2026, with Ultra Prime continuing to be manufactured at Thurso.

Mr Hollis continued: “AMTE Power has rich technical capabilities and a highly differentiated product range across multiple markets.

“We have identified where the business needs to be positioned as a market leading cell provider for specialist applications, with planned scale up at our existing manufacturing facility in Thurso, Scotland and the UKBIC, ahead of Gigafactory scales of production in due course in our proposed new facility.”

To support its growth ambitions, the company has bolstered the senior leadership team with the appointments of Anita Breslin as chief finance officer, Wes Simons as corporate development director and John Valentine as supply chain director.

For the six months ended December 2022 the group’s turnover was £0.55m, 32% less than H1 2022 (£0.81m).

Grant funding income for the period was £0.47m, down from £0.62m in the first half year of 2022. Similarly commercial revenue fell from £0.16m H1 2022 to £0.07m in H1 2023.

The reduction in revenue reflects the reduced strategic investment in research and development, moving away from contract manufacturing and continued focus towards commercialising the three core products.

The group’s loss before tax for the period was £3.72m (H1 2022 loss £2.65m) impacted by the commencement of scaling the organisation and financing costs of £0.40m incurred in the period related to the Arena convertible bond. Group loss after tax was £3.67m (H1 2022, loss £2.65m).