UK startup Altilium secures £18.5m DRIVE35 government grant to build Britain's first commercial EV battery recycling refinery in Plymouth
Altilium, a UK battery materials startup, has been awarded £18.5 million from the DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund — a programme delivered by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK and Innovate UK — to build the UK's first commercial-scale EV (electric vehicle) battery recycling refinery. The facility, known as ACT3, will be located in Plymouth, Devon, where Altilium already operates the UK's only hydrometallurgical (a chemical process using aqueous solutions to extract metals) pilot plant for battery recycling. The building is already complete; equipment installation is scheduled for summer 2026, with commissioning targeted for end of 2027. DRIVE35 sits within the UK government's broader £2.5 billion commitment to accelerate domestic EV supply chain and battery manufacturing capacity. The grant comes at a moment of acute structural significance: private investment in European climate technology fell to a five-year low in early 2025, making government-backed industrial grants the primary source of capital for companies building physical clean energy infrastructure. ACT3 will create 70 jobs at the Plymouth site. Altilium's model — recovering critical battery materials domestically rather than relying on Asian supply chains — directly addresses UK and EU regulatory pressure to onshore battery supply chains ahead of incoming Critical Minerals Strategy requirements and Battery Regulation (EU) traceability obligations.
Why this matters
This grant activates energy transition, project finance, and regulatory advisory practices. The legal work on a government grant of this size includes grant agreement negotiation (with the DBT as counterparty), conditions precedent review, state aid (now UK subsidy control — the domestic equivalent of EU state aid law under the Subsidy Control Act 2022) compliance analysis, and regulatory filing coordination with the relevant planning and environmental authorities. The 'why now' trigger is the convergence of weak private climate-tech investment with government industrial strategy obligations under the Skidmore Review targets and the incoming EU Battery Regulation, which imposes recycled content and carbon footprint traceability requirements that will make domestically recycled battery materials commercially valuable. Firms with strong energy transition and project finance practices in the UK are well-placed for the advisory work as ACT3 moves from grant award to construction and commissioning.
On the Ground
A trainee would be assisting with planning permission and licence condition summaries for the Plymouth site, coordinating regulatory filing submissions with the DBT and Innovate UK, and reviewing due diligence materials on Altilium's existing IP (intellectual property) portfolio in hydrometallurgical processing. They would also assist with grid connection agreement analysis for the energy-intensive refinery process.
Interview prep
Soundbite
Government grants are now the primary funding mechanism for UK clean energy infrastructure — private capital alone cannot close the gap.
Question you might get
“What legal issues would arise when structuring a government grant of this size under the UK Subsidy Control Act 2022, and how would you advise Altilium on protecting its position if the grant is later challenged?”
Full answer
Altilium has secured £18.5m from the DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund to build Britain's first commercial EV battery recycling refinery in Plymouth, with commissioning targeted for end of 2027. The commercial significance is that this is the kind of critical minerals infrastructure the UK needs to comply with incoming EU Battery Regulation traceability obligations and to reduce dependence on Asian supply chains for battery materials. The 'why now' driver is the collapse in private climate-tech investment, which has forced government to step in as the anchor funder for physical infrastructure projects. This is likely to generate substantial advisory work on subsidy control compliance, grant agreement structuring, and project finance as ACT3 moves through construction — precisely the type of complex, multi-regulatory work that suits Magic Circle energy transition teams.
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