When Britishvolt started gaining momentum with its plan to build a giant battery factory in north-east England, its timing could barely have been better. The then prime minister, Boris Johnson, was on the lookout for big projects that could bring jobs to poorer areas of the country and burnish his green credentials.
Britishvolt, with its ambition of making hundreds of thousands of batteries a year to power the switch to electric cars from the internal combustion engine, fitted the bill. But less than a year after Johnson praised the “absolutely amazing investment” in parliament, after promising £100m in government support, Britishvolt’s dreams are in jeopardy, with the company considering entering administration.
