Britishvolt delays opening battery plant until late 2025

ONE of Britain’s leading electric battery start-ups has been forced to push back production until late 2025, as soaring energy costs add another six months to construction at its £3.8bn gigafactory.

Britishvolt, which was founded in 2019 and has already attracted £2bn in fundraising, warned that it will not deliver batteries from a planned gigafactory until late 2025. Its initial target date for production was late 2023.

Britishvolt co-founder Orral Nadjari, who resigned as chief executive last week but remains the company’s largest shareholder, said that rising cost pressures had forced the company to push back its production plans.

Mr Nadjari told the Financial Times: “It does go hand in hand with the fact that we have inflation, we have recession and we have geopolitical uncertainties. The main facility will be delayed slightly into mid 2025.”

Mr Nadjari said that surging energy costs had forced the group to stop major construction works at its new site in Blyth, Northumberland, until February.

The company secured £1.8bn to develop the site, touted to be the first British large-scale battery plant, at the beginning of the year. The company won £1.7bn from the real estate investor Tritax alongside the asset manager Abrdn, as well as funding worth around £100m from the Government. However, the latter is not expected to arrive until next year.

Britishvolt has also attracted investment from the mining behemoth Glencore, as part of a long-term agreement over cobalt supplies for its batteries.

Upheaval at the top of the company and production delays come as Britishvolt cuts its target valuation by £200m to £1.5bn in its latest fundraising round, according to the Financial Times.

However, this still represented an £800m increase on its previous valuation.

Experts have long warned that Britain must develop its own battery manufacturing industry if it is to stop manufacturers moving abroad as diesel and petrol cars are phased out.

A spokesman for Britishvolt said: “We are progressing ahead of schedule in our enabling works at the Britishvolt Gigasite in Cambois, near Blyth, Northumberland.

“This has allowed us to take the time to focus on design work for the site and to reschedule some strands of construction work, optimising the build process for each of the project’s four phases.”