Autumn pay cut and fresh investment gives lifeline to Britishvolt

Britishvolt has been the subject of speculation suggesting the company is close to being forced into administration, putting its £3.8bn gigafactory project in Northumberland in jeopardy.

Reports suggest the government has refused a £30m advance in funding despite committing £100m to the project. According to the BBC, Britishvolt were required to meet certain targets to access the grant. These are said to have included hitting a target for private sector investment.  

In response, Britishvolt said it is ‘continuing to pursue positive ongoing discussions with potential investors,’ including ‘promising approaches’ from outside the UK, and has now secured the necessary near-term investment needed to sustain it over the coming weeks.

“We have previously spoken about the need to evolve our business strategy in response to challenging external factors and continue to explore both short- and long-term funding streams that will enable us to deliver on our plans to build a thriving localised, sustainable battery ecosystem based on next-generation cell technology,” the company said in a statement. “It is important that Britishvolt is a success not only for the close to 300 employees currently working for the company, but also for the many thousands of jobs we intend to create in the UK as we progress our plans.”

In January 2022 the government announced its support for Britishvolt from its Automotive Transformation Fund delivered by the Advanced Propulsion Centre. In July, the government then provided the company with a final grant offer through the Automotive Transformation Fund for its planned gigafactory, which is expected to create 3,000 direct jobs and another 5,000 supply chain jobs. Once built, the factory will produce enough batteries for over 300,000 electric vehicles annually.