Mubasher: UK Business Secretary Greg Clark pledged GBP 28 million ($36.07 million) for research efforts in electric vehicle (EV) batteries as he pushes for installing an industry-leading plant, Bloomberg reported.

The fund dedicated for the Coventry-based Battery Industrialisation Centre came on top of an initial investment of GBP 80 million, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said on Thursday in a statement.

“Putting the UK at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero emission vehicles is at the heart of our plans,” Business Minister Andrew Stephenson was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

The investment came within the UK’s broader drive to establish a so-called Gigafactory, which would support automobile manufacturers operating in the country, including Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan.

The UK government is grappling with a bigger issue of retaining carmakers as the Brexit uncertainty subdues production lines.