Page 41 - Feb2023

Administrators from the accounting firm EY were appointed to Britishvolt on Wednesday following the loss of 200
jobs at the start-up.

Britishvolt had planned to build the UK?s first ?gigafactory? battery production facility on the Northumberland coast
near Blyth, with construction due to begin in 2023.

The factory, Britishvolt said, would directly employ some 3,000 people, with 5,000 more jobs likely created in the
wider supply chain.
With the collapse of Britishvolt, UK-based battery production only represents a ?small fraction? of the industry?s
needs.

?The consequences of not correcting course will be the continuing demise of our automotive manufacturing
capability,? he tweeted, ?as car makers move to Europe or elsewhere, where battery capacity is being rapidly
deployed as a matter of economic priority.
Hard on the news of BritishVolts collapse came a story , also in The Times, that the charging stations needed to
meet the demand from a rapidly expanding EV base of cars could not be met until 20 years fromnow at the current
rate of investment and installation. This leaves the government with one more unappetizing issue on a plate filled
with problems as Britain's economy, bothered by inflation, looks headed to an economic turndown. According to
The Times Although Britishvolt had been promised £100m in government funding through the Automotive
Transformation Fund, each tranche of funding was contingent on the company meeting certain milestones and
commitments.
Towards the end of last year, the Business Secretary, Grant Shapps refused to allow the company to draw down
£30m in bridging funding on the grounds that the firm had not secured long-term external funding....The company?s
proprietary modular battery technology was (and is) still in its prototype stage and according to The Times, one
source close to Aston Martin said talks with Britishvolt over its technology had progressed slower than expected,
and it had not received sample products it had requested.

My shot of t he Frauenkirche Dresden, Germany. The baroque
st yle church , built in t he first half of t he 18t h cent ury, was
41
demolished in t he 1945 bombing of Dresden and t hen rebuilt
from 1994 t o 2005.