An Australian startup has tabled a last ditch rescue bid for collapsed battery business Britishvolt, potentially pumping life back into North East gigaplant plans.
Recharge Industries is reported to have launched a preliminary bid for the company which had been hoping to create a £3.8bn plant near Blyth, Northumberland, capable of producing hundreds of thousands of electric vehicle batteries each year. Britishvolt went into administration last Tuesday, appointing Big Four firm EY after failing to raise sufficient funds to fuel plans for the development in the North East and its research and development division.
The firm initially had 300 members of staff on its books but at the time of its collapse, EY said that of Britishvolt’s 232 employees, around 206 had been made redundant with immediate effect. The remaining 26 staff are being kept on to assist with the sale of the company’s business and its assets and the wind-down of the business. Britishvolt hoped to become a focal part of the UK’s electric vehicle ecosystem, cutting manufacturers’ reliance on imports from overseas, including China.
