Fears car battery firm is running out of juice
A COMPANY behind plans to build the UK’s first full-scale “gigafactory” making batteries for electric vehicles is on the brink of collapse.
Britishvolt has begun work on transforming the site of a former coal-fired power station, near Blyth in Northumberland, into a £3.8billion plant employing 3,000 skilled workers.
But most of the funding has yet to be firmly secured and the project has hit a brick wall.
The Government pledged £100million towards the cost, but the money will be released only when construction work reaches a certain milestone.
Insiders said not having its hands on the taxpayer cash is one reason Britishvolt is now facing a funding crisis.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson had hailed the project as a “levelling up opportunity” that would bring “thousands of new highly-skilled jobs to communities in our industrial heartlands”.
And then-business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the gigafactory was forecast to create “exactly what levelling up looks like”.
Britishvolt, which has 300 staff at present, is now preparing to enter administration. But it is still hoped jobs and the project could be saved if a buyer emerges.
Reports indicate a number of firms, including India’s Tata Motors, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, have held talks.
The weak pound against the dollar could make a buy-out attractive for a US suitor. Tesla, run by billionaire Elon Musk, is said to have considered building just such a plant in the UK. The site, close to the village of Cambois, is considered ideal for battery manufacturing because of its deepwater port, rail links and clean energy.
Britishvolt said: “We are aware of market speculation. We are actively working on several potential scenarios that offer the required stability.”