LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - British startup Ionetic,

which develops electric vehicle battery packs for low-volume

automakers, has launched production at a UK pilot plant as it

scales up for projects with manufacturers, the company said on

Tuesday.

The company's 5 million pound ($6.3 million) plant in

Brackley, Northamptonshire comes as Ionetic is working on EV

battery packs for a number of British and U.S. automakers, CEO

James Eaton told Reuters.

Major global automakers have committed to investing hundreds

of billions of dollars to develop EVs, the most complex and

expensive parts of which are the battery pack and software

system to run it.

Ionetic is targeting lower-volume manufacturers making

everything from buses to commercial vehicles, sports cars,

off-road vehicles and even golf carts or beach buggies that

would struggle with the expense of developing EVs.

"The really big players can throw hundreds of millions or

even billions at electrification," Eaton said. "But around 90%

to 95% of manufacturers are small and don't have hundreds of

millions of pounds to go electric."

He said that while an automaker could expect to spend

upwards of 30 million pounds on an in-house EV battery pack, in

general Ionetic can develop one for customers for under a

million pounds.

"We want customers to spend as little as possible to get to

production with a great battery pack," Eaton added.

Low-volume automakers could opt for generic existing

off-the-shelf battery pack technology, but could end up with a

product that does not meet their needs for range, power and

performance, Eaton said.

The startup has an ongoing research and development project

with bus maker Alexander Dennis, a unit of Canada's NFI Group ( NFYEF )

, but Eaton said he could not yet disclose which other

automakers the company is working with.

Ionetic has partnered with industrial automation firm

Rockwell Automation ( ROK ) to provide hardware and software for

its pilot plant. Rockwell has provided digital twin software to

Ionetic to test packs virtually before it invests in production,

Eaton said.

($1 = 0.7942 pounds)