A new Advanced Propulsion Centre UK report finds batteries, electric drive units and power electronics make up about two-fifths of a mass-market EV’s value. It identifies wiring harnesses, seats and interior trim as automation priorities, ranks ERP and MES software highest for impact and ROI, and recommends five UK actions.
Batteries, electric drive units (EDUs) and power electronics account for around two-fifths of the value of a mass-market battery electric vehicle (BEV), according to a report from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC), based in Coventry, UK. The report assesses where UK zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) manufacturing can increase productivity and capture more value.
The study, UK Zero Emission Vehicle Manufacturing: Competitiveness and strategic priorities for the sector, models the bill of materials for a C-segment BEV with a 50-60kWh battery pack and a factory-gate price of £20,625. Battery cells make up 18% of the vehicle’s value. Body-in-white (BIW) accounts for 12%, interior for 10%, and battery pack integration and chassis for 8% each. The e-motor and gearbox account for 6% and the inverter and power electronics for 5%.
“The UK has a clear opportunity to boost the competitiveness of its automotive manufacturing sector by continued targeted investment in high-value technologies such as battery and electrified powertrain technologies,” says Dr. Hadi Moztarzadeh, head of technology trends at APC.
The UK built nearly 720,000 cars in 2025. The government’s £4bn DRIVE35 program aims to raise annual output of cars and commercial vehicles to 1.3 million by 2035. The report cites relatively high UK labor and industrial energy costs as pressures on the sector. It also points to a fall in European OEM production capacity from around 40 million vehicles in 2020 to 36.4 million in 2025. China accounted for nearly 75% of global EV production in 2025.
To set priorities, APC scored sub-components from 1 to 5 on five measures: energy consumption, weight, labor intensity, current automation level and UK supply-chain criticality. It then combined these into a supply chain improvement index that gives extra weight to labor intensity minus automation. Wiring harnesses and cable assemblies score highest, followed by car seats and interior trim. The report says automation could make harness production, now largely carried out outside the UK, viable for onshoring. Battery cells, sensors and electronic control unit (ECU) processing units show the highest import dependency. Rules-of-origin requirements and the EU’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act add to the case for capital investment in these areas.
“While batteries, electric drive units and power electronics are critical growth areas, manufacturing competitiveness extends far beyond electrification technologies alone. A successful automotive sector depends on strong capabilities across the entire vehicle value chain,” Moztarzadeh adds.
APC also rated manufacturing technologies on a 1-10 scale for manufacturing impact and return on investment (ROI). Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution system (MES) software are the only technologies to score 9 on both measures. AI machine vision, in-line metrology and AI-driven process optimization also fall in the high-impact, strong-ROI group.
The report cites Universal Robots case studies showing cobot payback averaging 12 months across automotive Tier 1 deployments. For industrial robotics, the highest-value applications in BIW welding and painting are already saturated, so payback on remaining applications stretches to two to four years. Additive manufacturing for series production is estimated to be three to seven years away.
APC finds that most of these technologies are commercially mature and that the barrier is implementation: data quality, skills and digital processes. It cites Barclays research showing that up to 15% of manufacturing survey respondents do not track their key productivity KPIs. One of six case studies in the report describes Coventry-based steering supplier Pailton Engineering. The company automated a previously manual induction hardening pick-and-place operation with a Fairino cobot and now handles 60 parts per hour.
“Our world-leading engineering expertise, established automotive manufacturing clusters, strong research and innovation base, and close collaboration between industry, government and academia provide a solid foundation for attracting investment and capturing a greater share of value from the growing ZEV market,” says Moztarzadeh.
The report makes five recommendations:
- innovation funding to automate seat and wiring harness production
- continued capital support for battery and electric powertrain supply chains
- renewed resilience support for non-BEV anchor components such as steering and braking
- advanced automation technology clusters
- earlier collaboration between designers, suppliers and OEMs during requests for quotation (RFQs)
“To maximise this opportunity, targeted action is required to strengthen high-value ZEV supply chains, accelerate automation and digitalisation, improve supply chain competitiveness, and support closer collaboration across the automotive ecosystem,” Moztarzadeh concludes.
