Britishvolt

Britishvolt was a UK-based battery technology and manufacturing company founded in 2019 with the aim of establishing large-scale battery production for electric vehicles in the UK. The company planned to build a 30 gigawatt-hour (GWh) "gigafactory" in Blyth, Northumberland, which would have been capable of producing enough batteries for hundreds of thousands of electric cars annually. Britishvolt's ambitious project was estimated to cost GBP 3.8 billion and was expected to create 3,000 direct jobs and support an additional 5,000 in the supply chain. The company's technology focused on developing lithium-ion batteries for automotive and energy storage applications. Britishvolt aimed to begin production by 2024 and reach full 30 GWh capacity by 2025/26. The company also expressed interest in vertically integrating its operations by including cathode and anode manufacturing in its business model. However, Britishvolt faced significant financial difficulties and entered administration in January 2023, with the majority of its 232 employees made redundant. The collapse of Britishvolt was seen as a setback for the UK's ambitions to establish a domestic battery manufacturing industry to support its transition to electric vehicles.