Britishvolt

The UK battery start-up Britishvolt has collapsed into administration after last-ditch efforts to secure emergency funding from a group of investors failed.

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Britishvolt filed notice to appoint an administrator in the insolvency courts on Tuesday and the accountancy firm EY has confirmed it has taken on the ...

Glencore had a deal with Britishvolt to supply cobalt to the factory. That was reportedly followed by two further requests, for £11.5m and then just £3m, raising concerns in government about the financial stability of the project. Most notably, the company’s leadership had concerns that it had no guarantees that promised follow-on funding would materialise, according to two sources with knowledge of internal discussions. However, ultimately, both appear to have failed to reach a deal. However, construction work stopped last autumn as its focus turned to staving off collapse. Sources close to the situation said the existing investors had been closer to securing a deal than the Indonesia-linked consortium which “did not have the necessary funding” required to take on Britishvolt.

Employees were told the news at an all-staff meeting on Tuesday morning. The firm had planned to build a giant factory to make electric car batteries in Blyth, ...

"There isn't any real industry for the young ones coming through, so they could've done with it yes. It had a deep water port, good transport links and access to plentiful power. So ministers needs to roll up their sleeves, not just write cheques." But Britishvolt struggled to turn a profit and ran out of money. A real shame." An existing shareholder added: "It's madness, I have been offering a variety of possible solutions.

The majority of Britishvolt's 300 employees have been made redundant after last minute attempts to find a buyer failed.

"There isn't any real industry for the young ones coming through, so they could've done with it yes. It had a deep water port, good transport links and access to plentiful power. So ministers needs to roll up their sleeves, not just write cheques." But Britishvolt struggled to turn a profit and ran out of money. A real shame." An existing shareholder added: "It's madness, I have been offering a variety of possible solutions.

The move comes as a blow for the UK's ambitions to gain a foothold in the global EV battery market.

The business is seen as a crucial element of the UK’s drive to grow its electric vehicle manufacturing capability. Upon completion, Britishvolt’s Blythe factory was set to produce enough batteries for over 300,000 electric vehicles each year. The majority of its 300 staff have been made redundant with immediate effect.

Battery start-up Britishvolt has collapsed into administration on Tuesday (17 January), with emergency talks with investors regarding a rescue bid falling ...

Employment in automotive jobs in the UK could plummet unless more is done to put this country at the forefront of developing and building EVs. That is, of course, if the UK manages to attract EV manufacturers to return to its shores or to enter the market – and engage with them to promote the procurement of British-made batteries. The Government had pledged £100m of support to the Gigafactory and Britishvolt had requested a £30m advance last summer. Instead, the model will be built in China. BritishVolt had previously attributed its troubles to the economic shockwaves of Covid-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine, plus the fact that the UK Government did not provide grant funding to the timelines it expected. Britishvolt is yet to publish an official statement. It is clear that the talks were not successful. There is also no official statement as of yet from the UK Government. This request was rejected and the Government pushed the request back to November 2022. The site is currently under construction, with planning permission having been granted in 2021, but works had been paused since late 2022. EY has stated that Britishvolt had entered administration “due to insufficient equity investment for both the ongoing research it was undertaking and the development of its sites in the Midlands and the north east of England”. But this will no longer be the case.

Britain's car industry relies on petrol or diesel vehicles – and every failure to be part of the electric revolution makes it more exposed.

Balaji, last week said the company would make batteries in Europe – a disconcertingly vague promise for UK officials desperate for more gigafactories. Less than a year later, Johnson is out of Downing Street, Britishvolt is bankrupt, and the future of the UK car industry is under serious threat. Envision managers estimate that 100GWh would be enough to attract a full supply chain and its well-paid jobs to the UK. The British industry is painfully reliant on producing cars with petrol or diesel engines, but it still has a shot at retooling for the battery age. The bigger investors have lost millions of pounds, but not enough to make a material impact on their balance sheets. The battery startup Britishvolt eyed a big opportunity.

– What is a gigafactory? As the world transitions from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles it is going to need millions of batteries to power them. The ...

For the company itself, it is curtains. Britishvolt hoped to open the first gigafactory in the UK. And the company’s plans were also physically grand. The promises were impressive. The business managed to buy the site of a former power plant in Cambois in April 2021 and has received planning permission for the factory. The new factory was going to be the UK’s fourth-largest building, and one of the top 20 in the world.

Britishvolt hoped to open the first gigafactory in the UK. It had selected a site in Cambois, a former coal mining village near Blyth in the north-east of ...

For the company itself, it is curtains. Britishvolt hoped to open the first gigafactory in the UK. And the company’s plans were also physically grand. The promises were impressive. The business managed to buy the site of a former power plant in Cambois in April 2021 and has received planning permission for the factory. The new factory was going to be the UK’s fourth-largest building, and one of the top 20 in the world.

The name of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy can leave economists of a certain ilk cold - particularly the last two words. In.

On paper, it seemed an example of innovation and ingenuity, and that it happened to be (in theory) located in the north east gave it an obvious appeal to Tory politicians. As one academic puts it, our approach is “somewhat schizophrenic, with habitual appeals to the virtues of free markets accompanied by selective state intervention to support specific firms and sectors.” Government would be advised to pick one, and stick with it. There is good reason for scepticism – markets, after all, have been the defining force of human progress for centuries.

Labour's shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial strategy has told The Northern Echo that the collapse of Britishvolt in Blyth is a…

Businesses don't believe the government is reliable in this area. To maintain the number of jobs that we currently have in the automotive industry, the UK needs 8-10 gigafactories by the year 2040. The reality is they have never received a penny from the government. The collapse of Britishvolt has been blamed on a number of factors including promised investment from the UK Government not materialising, which set off a chain reaction where private investors have then withdrawn their investment bids. We need investment to maintain the number of jobs that we currently have or we risk falling behind. The element is a key component of electric vehicle batteries. We need good work and good jobs all over the country. "The Blyth site for Britishvolt is absolutely perfect. Talking exclusively to The Northern Echo, Jonathan Reynolds MP said that Britishvolt's demise was avoidable. The harbour is excellent and well-maintaned, there's a highly-skilled workforce in the area, and it's well placed for low-cost green energy. "The collapse of Britishvolt was not inevitable," he said, "but it is a sign of the absence of any form of industrial strategy from this government." Labour's shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy has told The Northern Echo that the collapse of Britishvolt in Blyth is a sign that the UK is "falling behind" other countries.

The writing was on the wall when Britain finalized its break from the European Union: The UK sorely lacked the battery manufacturing capability that would ...

The three-year-old startup filed for Britain’s equivalent of bankruptcy on Tuesday, letting go of all but a couple dozen employees. [failure ](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-17/britishvolt-is-said-to-expect-uk-insolvency-court-filing-today)of [Britishvolt Ltd.](/quote/1862233D:LN) to get past the stage of developing prototypes for an industry still vital to the UK’s economy casts further doubt on its prospects in the global race by nations to become self-sufficient in greener technology. [sorely lacked](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-06/brexit-exposes-u-k-auto-sector-s-lack-of-electric-car-batteries) the battery manufacturing capability that would be absolutely critical to the auto industry’s future, leaving the country’s already declining car sector in a make-or-break bind.

'Part of the damage done by leaving the EU', says Hague after firm goes into administration.

[Labour](/topic/labour) said the collapse was a “disaster” for the UK car industry and a symptom of wider failures, while the Scottish National Party (SNP) said it was an “abject failure of the mythical levelling up agenda”. Mr Reynolds added: “They must also accept some accountability for its failure, because, much like their levelling up strategy, all we have been left with is an empty space instead of what was promised … But in November it fell into emergency funding talks after revealing it was close to entering administration.