Collapse of Britishvolt deals blow to UK’S electric vehicle dreams
BRITISHVOLT, the electric vehicle battery maker, has collapsed into administration in a blow to the UK’S hopes of fostering a homegrown gigafactory champion.
The start-up, which was planning to build a £3.8bn gigafactory at a site near Blyth, Northumberland, had been racing to secure additional rescue funding or a sale of the business.
Britishvolt had been in line for £100m in funding from the Government via its Automotive Transformation Fund.
It was hoped the funding would help foster a homegrown source to power electric cars, reducing manufacturers’ reliance on imports from markets such as China, which has emerged as one of the world’s largest battery makers.
However, the funding was subject to Britishvolt hitting certain milestones, including beginning building work on the planned factory.
Staff were told around midday yesterday that the rescue efforts had failed, with lawyers for Britishvolt filing a notice of its intention to appoint administrators with the insolvency court.
Administrators EY said that of Britishvolt’s 232 employees, around 206 have been made redundant. The remaining 26 staff are being kept on to assist with the sale of the company’s business and its assets and the winddown of the business.
Britishvolt, which was backed by mining giant Glencore, narrowly avoided collapse in November after an injection of funds. Staff were asked to take pay cuts to keep the business afloat. MPS said yesterday that they would launch an inquiry into the UK’S electric car battery production and how jobs can be protected.
The Commons business, enterprise and industrial strategy select committee said that the demise of Britishvolt left only Chinese-backed Envision’s site in Sunderland, which supplies Nissan, as the UK’S only manufacturer.
Darren Jones, chairman of the committee, said: “The future of car manufacturing in the UK is dependent on our ability to make electric vehicles, and to be able to export them into the EU.”
Under the terms of the UK’S Brexit deal, at least 70pc of the parts in electric vehicles must be made in either Britain or Europe for them to be sold in the EU. Meanwhile, the Government has banned the sale of new petrol or diesel cars from 2030.
Despite its ambitions, Britishvolt’s efforts to build a factory had been repeatedly hit by setbacks.
It delayed work on its gigafactory in August, blaming the rising cost of energy, with its chief executive and cofounder, Orral Nadjari, resigning days later. The company’s founder and chairman, Lars Carlstrom, resigned in 2020 after a historic conviction for tax fraud from the 1990s emerged.
There were also question marks over the deals Britishvolt had claimed to have secured with carmakers, including Aston Martin and Lotus, which were largely preliminary and did not bind the manufacturers to buy its batteries.
The Daily Telegraph reported last month that some buyers were put off by high prices and long waiting times for the company’s technology, when they could instead source cheaper batteries from China.