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Forrest reveals planto turn Formula 1 firm into global battery player

Oxfordshire, England |Mining and green energy billionaire Andrew Forrest has revealed plans totransform his recently acquired British Formula 1 car designer WAE into the keyhub for Fortescue’s worldwide battery and electric vehicle ambitions.

Dr Forrest has shifted a top US-based Fortescue exec, JudithJudson, to take the helm at WAE, as it opens two new facilities and kicks off arecruitment drive to boost the UK company’s headcount at least fourfold.

A new 13,500 square metre plant at Banbury, one of three thatwill be scattered around the outskirts of Oxford by the year’s end, will focuson making batteries for the electric trucks that Fortescue is testing in Perth for use at its Pilbara iron ore mines.

Dr Forrest’s ambition is to rev up WAE at pace, so that he canhalve the typical development time for this technology. His team wants to haveelectric trucks operational on site by early 2026, as they try to fullydecarbonise Fortescue’s mines by 2030.

He then aims to turn WAE - acquired as Williams AdvancedEngineering in March last year, and now rebranded as a Fortescue company - intoa global supplier to the mining industry.

“WAE can grow into the leading-edgebattery cell supplier in the world,” he told reporters at the WAE’s researchfacility in Grove, near Oxford. “This is just the start.”

The company Dr Forrest bought employed a few hundred people, andits primary focus was on designing sports vehicles for the likes of Jaguar andLand Rover.

He has already commissioned a new factory at Kidlington, northof Oxford, which will design the “infinity train” - powered by the kinetic energy released from its own brakes - that he announced with much fanfare last year.

The Banbury facility will make batteries and powertrains thatcan be fitted into new Liebherr trucks, which are manufactured in the US. Theycould also be retrofitted into Fortescue’s existing fleet, at a Liebherrfacility in Western Australia.

The growth plan is understood to envisage WAE eventually openinga battery factory in the US, at which point the British plant would switchprimarily to supplying truck makers in Europe.

Dr Forrest was attracted to WAE because its focus on Formula 1and Formula E meant it was already looking at how to design electric vehiclesthat could withstand high use, high stress, high temperatures and highvibration.

But his announcement on Monday, made alongside the UK’s BusinessSecretary, Kemi Badenoch, represents a significant scale-up in his plans forthe company.

From an original workforce of about 250, Fortescue has alreadyramped up WAE’s payroll to about 700. The Banbury site will initially addanother 120 engineers and skilled workers. And the three sites - the R&Dhub at Grove, the train facility at Kidlington, and the battery complex atBanbury - will have a combined 1000 workers by the end of this year.

Dr Forrest said he had been talking to Ms Badenoch about how torecruit this workforce, given Britain faces a skilled-labour shortage.

“We need to really unblock these supply chains of great skills,we need to put the very best people in the world here. So they mentor andattract the other great skills around the world to this region. And we arespeaking to the Secretary of State about that,” he said.

“This growth will occur. It will happen. It’s just, will it beby a proud British-Australian company? That’s the question. So we are workingquickly to unlock all those roadblocks.”

The WAE complex in Oxfordshire will also work on a prototypethree-megawatt-hour charging station for the trucks, which would be powered bya 60 megawatt solar farm at Christmas Creek, in the Pilbara.

Truck prototypes are already being tested on site, usingbatteries manufactured in Oxfordshire. There are eight battery packs per truck,offering about 1.4 megawatt hours - allowing a truck to run for six to eighthours off a single charge.

The design of the trucks is still being finalised, as WAE triesto increase the capacity and reduce the weight. Up to 30 truck prototypes couldbe built at Hazelmere, near Perth, as the testing phase advances.

One of WAE’s key innovations is understood to be cutting-edgebattery management software, which can extend the batteries’ life.

A seemingly slightly overwhelmed Ms Badenoch told reporters thatshe had found her visit to the site “impressive”. “It’s hard not to be bowledover by Andrew’s inspirational outlook and his passion for the environment,”she said.