BY Richard Summerfield
Britishvolt, the battery startup company which had planned to build a giant factory to make electric car batteries in Blyth, Northumberland, has collapsed into administration.
The company has appointed EY as administrators after failing to raise enough funding. The firm described the move as “disappointing”, and said all impacted staff were being offered support. The majority of Britishvolt’s 232 staff have been made redundant, with just 26 being kept on to assist with the sale of the company’s business and assets.
Dan Hurd, joint administrator and partner at EY, said the firm had offered “a significant opportunity to create jobs and employment, as well as support the development of technology and infrastructure needed to help with the UK’s energy transition. It is disappointing that the company has been unable to fulfil its ambitions and secure the equity funding needed to continue. Our priorities as joint administrators are now to protect the interests of the company’s creditors, explore options for a sale of the business and assets, and to support the impacted employees.”
The collapse of Britishvolt came after funding talks failed, leaving a string of disappointed backers ranging from FTSE 100 companies Glencore and Ashtead to property investor Tritax, owned by investment group abrdn, which had committed to fund a battery ‘gigafactory’ in Northumberland.
Plans for the £3.8bn factory were part of a long-term vision to boost UK manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries and create around 3000 skilled jobs. The factory was expected to produce over 300,000 lithium-ion batteries a year by 2027.
However, the company has been on shaky ground for some time. Britishvolt consistently pushed back its construction plans. It was expected that the first lithium-ion batteries would roll off the production line by the end of 2023, with the firm partnering with Siemens to make that a reality. That date was later pushed to mid-2025 due to a factory redesign, as well as “rampant inflation and rising interest rates”.
In November 2022, the company secured a short-term investment to stay in business and announced that its staff had agreed to take a temporary pay cut while the company attempted to secure longer-term funding for its planned gigafactory project in northern England. As of summer 2022, Britishvolt had only raised around £200m of funding, and £100m of promised government funding was delayed due to key targets for the investment being missed.
“As part of our efforts to see British companies succeed in the industry, we offered significant support to Britishvolt through the Automotive Transformation Fund on the condition that key milestones – including private sector investment commitments – were met,” said a department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesman. “We remained hopeful that Britishvolt would find a suitable investor and are disappointed to hear that this has not been possible, and therefore no ATF grant has been paid out. Our thoughts are with the company’s employees and their families at this time, and we stand ready to support those affected. The UK is one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing, and we want to ensure the best outcome for the site. We will work closely with the local authority and potential investors to achieve this.”
News: Britishvolt: UK battery start-up collapses into administration