Britishvolt, a startup specializing in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for electric vehicles, announced in December that it had selected a site in northern England’s Blyth, Northumberland, to build a EUR 2.6 billion factory.

The factory will be built on 235 acres of land; the site will be capable of producing more than 300,000 lithium-ion batteries for U.K.’s automotive sector. Construction of the factory is expected to initiate this summer, with production starting in 2023. The factory located in the port of Blyth would be built in three stages. The announcement came shortly after Britishvolt unveiled plans to build a global headquarters in the West Midlands, with operations planned for 2022.

Britishvolt applied for backing from a EUR 1 billion British government fund set up to support the mass production of batteries and help the auto industry shift towards making electric vehicles in order to fund the gigafactory development.

The fund was announced in November last year by British prime minister Boris Johnson as part of his plans to ban the sale of cars and vans, which run solely on petrol and diesel from 2030.

Britishvolts chief strategy officer Isobel Sheldon claims that Britishvolt’s batteries would perform 20% to 25% better than Tesla Inc’s, the electric car maker who currently dominates the E.V. market. She also said that the company was raising more money and considering a stock market listing.

Britishvolt is the only company so far to announce plans to build new battery production in Britain. This project is the most significant industrial investment in the region since 1984, when Nissan built a massive car manufacturing plant in Sunderland, England. The gigafactory news comes as the U.K.’s existing automotive sector faces post-Brexit challenges.