Battery tech startup Britishvolt goes into administration

Founded in 2019, Britishvolt plans to build the UK’s first battery Gigaplant – designing and manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles.

The company selected a site up in the northeast of England which was previously a coal fire power station. With 93 hectares of space, permission was granted around July/August last year to build.

Currently, the startup has close to 300 employees working for the company and plans for many thousands of further jobs to be created as plans progress.

The government championed the project from the outset, pledging £100 million to help build the plant as well as attract more private investment. At the time, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the investment as a “levelling up opportunity”.

Unfortunately, Britishvolt has been forced to delay the start of production quite a few times due to “difficult external economical headwinds”.

More recent turmoil hit the company when it was understood they wanted to draw down nearly a third of the government funding early, but it was refused.

The company initially struggled to find investors to continue to fund its efforts to build the £3.8 billion plant – putting 300 jobs on the line.

To reduce near-term costs, employees voluntarily agreed to a temporary salary reduction for the month of November.

However, it was understood that the startup had secured cash to keep it afloat for the short to medium term. The Financial Times reported that this cash injection would have been enough to last until early December.

But it seems that wasn’t the case as the company announced that it is going into administration.

Unite national officer for the automotive sector Steve Bush said: “This is a grim day for the North East and for the just transition to the electrification of the nation’s automotive sector.

“The complete lack of a competent industrial strategy by the government to protect jobs in the UK automotive sector is becoming potentially more catastrophic by the day.

“It is extraordinary that despite the UK automotive sector being required to move to the production of electric vehicles, there are still no UK stand-alone factories making the batteries that are required. The demise of Britishvolt means there are not even any in the pipeline.

“The government’s strategy seems to be to cross their fingers and hope that everything will be ok. The workers in the automotive sector are frankly enraged at this dreadful and total abdication of leadership.”

Britishvolt’s administration is ‘potentially catastrophic’ for both the North East and UK’s automotive transition.

Dr Benny Peiser, Net Zero Watch's Director, said: "This fiasco was utterly foreseeable and was indeed foreseen by us and other analysts - but not by complacent ministers and incompetent civil servants. BMW's China exodus and Britishvolt's collapse won't be the last casualties of the government's green command and control economy."