Good news for battery technology pioneer, Britishvolt, which collapsed into administration in January, is that the company is to be bought by Australian startup Recharge Industries. Britishvolt had planned to build a giant gigafactory near Blyth in Northumberland to make electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
Recharge Industries, which is owned by New York fund Scale Facilitation Partners, has entered an agreement with Britishvolt to buy its business and assets. The deal comes three weeks after Britishvolt fell into administration and will hopefully bring back the dream of the UK creating its own electric vehicle battery industry to support the growing production of EVs in the country.
David Collard, Scale Facilitation CEO and Recharge founder, said: “We’re thrilled to be progressing with our proposed bid for Britishvolt and can’t wait to get started making a reality of our plans to build the UK’s first gigafactory.
“After a competitive and rigorous process, we’re confident our proposal will deliver a strong outcome for all involved.”
Accountancy firm EY, appointed as Britishvolt’s administrator, said that the bidding process saw several approaches from interested investors. They expect the acquisition to be completed within the next seven days.
Hopefully, this will put Britishvolt back on track with its previous ambitions to build the battery plant that was expected to produce enough cells each year for over 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs. It also hoped to create over 3,000 direct high-skilled jobs and another 5,000 plus indirect roles in the wider UK supply chain.
