Botham-backed Aussie rescue bid saves Britishvolt’s:£3.8bn gigafactory plan

Aussie rescue bid saves Britishvolt: Plans for giant £3.8bn gigafactory revived in deal backed by cricket legend Ian Botham

Britishvolt has been saved by an Australian start-up in a deal backed by Ian Botham.

In a major boost to the UK’s electric vehicle (EV) ambitions, administrators at EY selected Recharge Industries as the preferred bidder to buy the car battery company, weeks after its demise.

The deal – supported by cricket legend Lord Botham in his role as a UK-Australia trade envoy – revives hopes that the £3.8billion gigafactory Britishvolt planned to build near Blyth in Northumberland will go ahead.

Howzat? Cricket legend Lord Botham (pictured) has backed a deal for Australia’s Recharge Industries to buy Britishvolt in his role as a UK-Australia trade envoy

The factory is seen as crucial in supercharging Britain’s electric vehicle manufacturing capabilities and reducing reliance on materials from China and the EU.

But the plans suffered a setback last month when Britishvolt fell into administration.

However, industry experts warned that there was still no certainty the factory would go ahead given that Recharge is also a start-up and has yet to construct a major project of its own.

The Australian group – which is ultimately owned by New York-based investment firm Scale Facilitation – beat a string of rivals to land the deal.

Accountant EY, which is overseeing the sale, said it received ‘multiple approaches’ and ‘numerous offers’ before naming Recharge as the preferred bidder.

Last month, the start-up was publicly backed by Botham, who said he was ‘proactively assisting’ the group with its bid through his role as the trade envoy. 

EY did not specify how much the firm would be sold for, but any deal will is likely to value Britishvolt at a fraction of its £774million valuation when it raised money in February last year.

Recharge founder David Collard 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. 

Nissan’s green drive 

Nissan is snapping up a chunk of Renault’s electric car business. 

The Japanese car giant will take a stake of up to 15 per cent in Ampere, an arm of Renault planning to sell six electric models by 2030. 

The investment comes ahead of a planned listing on the Paris stock exchange for the spin-off in the second half of this year, with Renault keeping a majority stake. 

The pair also announced an overhaul of their partnership, which saw Renault cut its stake in Nissan from 43 per cent to 15 per cent. 

Nissan will keep its 15 per cent stake in Renault. 

After a competitive and rigorous process, we’re confident our proposal will deliver a strong outcome for all involved.’

The factory is expected to create as many as 3,000 jobs in the area, which former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said was ‘exactly what levelling up looks like’. 

Simon Clarke, Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said Recharge’s winning bid was ‘welcome news’, adding that ‘a private partner has always been essential for Britishvolt’.

But Professor David Bailey at the University Of Birmingham Business School warned that it was perhaps too early to say if this was really a good match for the British start-up.

‘Whilst this agreement is better than nothing, Recharge, like Britishvolt, is still ultimately a start-up,’ he said. 

‘The sector would have been better off if it had been a bigger player, like Panasonic or [Chinese energy group] Envision, who won the bid.’

He said many of the issues behind Britishvolt’s collapse are still lurking beneath the surface, including financing the factory and finding customers, with no clear indication of how Recharge will manage either of these.

Andy Palmer, former boss of Aston Martin and so-called Godfather of EVs, warned that more needed to be done to make Britishvolt a success.

‘The new owners now have to prove they have the technology and manufacturing capability to build an order book, going well beyond the achievements of Britishvolt to date,’ he said.

He said robust incentives were needed in the UK in order to compete with the EU.

Jonathan Reynolds, Labour business spokesman, said: ‘The Government’s long-term failure on industrial strategy means we’re losing the global race for electric vehicle battery manufacturing.’

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