Britishvolt battery company goes bankrupt

The supplier of the Lotus brand has just entered judicial receivership and is at risk of jeopardizing battery manufacturing in the United Kingdom.

How difficult it is to survive in the face of the bulldozer of Asian brands. Last year, the vast majority of the electric battery production market was predominantly dominated by Chinese company CATL, followed by Korean LG Chem, Chinese BYD, and Japanese Panasonic. Other international players only captured the crumbs.

Founded in 2019, the British company Britishvolt had big ambitions, aiming to establish a massive facility capable of employing up to 3,000 people at a cost of €4.32 billion, with an annual production of over 300,000 batteries. For such an investment, a funding round was expected in 2021, not counting government aid amounting to €113 million.

Since the implementation of Brexit, the UK automotive sector must produce the majority of components for an electric vehicle domestically to enter the EU market on a commercial level. The sine qua non condition is to avoid being taxed in neighboring countries, but also to meet the British government’s requirements, which aims to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles starting in 2030.

300 Employees Laid Off

Britishvolt aimed to produce up to 38 GWh of batteries and had already formed partnerships with Lotus, Aston Martin, and was in discussions with Tesla. Unfortunately, this progress was abruptly halted, and due to the lack of truly serious investors, the startup had to prematurely lay off its 300 employees.

Bankruptcies are common in the UK, especially in the post-COVID period, with a +39% increase over the past year.

The British press has reported two offers amounting to around €34 million. The first was proposed by an investment fund named DeaLab Group, while the second was initiated by former shareholders of Britishvolt.

Read also: The future electric Aston Martins with Britishvolt batteries