A British startup aiming to open the nation’s first high-volume lithium ion battery plant within the fourth quarter of 2023 has appointed two trade veterans as advisers.

Britishvolt on Wednesday mentioned Joe Bakaj, Ford’s former European vice chairman of product growth, and Nick Spencer, a former BMW and Jaguar Land Rover government, have joined the corporate’s advisory board.

Bakaj, a 2011 Automotive News All-Star, spent greater than 30 years with Ford. As vice chairman of worldwide powertrain a decade in the past, Bakaj oversaw the engineering groups that created most of the engines in Ford’s trendsetting EcoBoost engine lineup, together with the award-winning 1.0-liter, three-cylinder turbo. He was additionally answerable for the Focus Electrical and hybrid variations of the Fusion sedan and C-Max. He completed his profession with the automaker main product growth in Europe, the place maybe his signature automobile was the Ford Focus RS high-performance compact. Since retiring from Ford in 2018, Bakaj has labored as a advisor and with Detroit concept incubator Motormindz.

Spencer retired from Jaguar Land Rover final month, closing out an almost six-year stint there, the place he started as the corporate’s international powertrain manufacturing and manufacturing engineering director. JLR launched its line of Ingenium gasoline and diesel engines in a brand new plant in considered one of Spencer’s first assignments. Earlier than JLR, Spencer spent 16 years at BMW, in keeping with his LinkedIn profile. There, Spencer labored in buying and electronics and was managing director of the corporate’s Hams Corridor engine plant within the U.Okay., which makes three- and four-cylinder engines for Minis and BMWs.

Britishvolt is investing about $3 billion to construct its plant in northeastern England. It is going to be coming on-line simply as JLR and lots of different European automakers start scaling up manufacturing of electrical automobiles. JLR, for example, has pledged to transform Jaguar to an EV-only model by 2025 and launch six electrical Land Rovers by 2024. Volvo has set a objective of phasing out its gasoline and diesel automobiles by 2030.

Final fall, the British authorities mentioned it was engaged on plans to ban the sale of automobiles powered solely by gasoline and diesel engines by 2030, permitting gasoline- and diesel-electric hybrid automobiles till 2035.

Britishvolt spokesman Ben Kilbey says the corporate ultimately plans to supply batteries in North America.