DRIVE35 Supplier Readiness and Transformation Fund

The DRIVE35 Supplier Readiness and Transformation Fund (SRTF), delivered by Business Growth West Midlands and the West Midlands Combined Authority and funded by the Department for Business and Trade, provides capital grants of £250,000 to £3,000,000 to support businesses in the West Midlands to scale, diversify and build capacity for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing and wider electrification supply chains. Its aims include supporting existing West Midlands automotive companies to scale and diversify into wider electrification value chains, and attracting and growing new technology companies through inward investment. Funding will be released in phases across a four-year period running to March 2030, so businesses need to consider when access to the grant best aligns with their own investment plans. Projects must support industrialisation of EV manufacturing and supply chain transformation at scale, be centred on a proven, technically viable and economically feasible product, process or technology, and cover activities across the EV supply chain such as manufacturing growth, parts, components, systems, materials, tooling and production processes. The programme is delivered under a formally submitted UK Subsidy Control scheme.

Open to UK-registered businesses active in the West Midlands region, with projects delivered in specified local authority areas (including Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton and others); projects must meet a minimum 50% private match funding requirement and pass financial due diligence and subsidy control checks.