Britishvolt has been bought out of administration by Australian firm Recharge Industries, reviving plans for the UK's first electric vehicle battery factory.
Recharge confirmed the takeover in a statement on Monday, adding Britishvolt’s proposed £3.8bn EV battery plant in Northumberland was still on the agenda and likely to create “thousands of green, skilled and local jobs”.
“We’re confident of making the Cambois gigafactory a success,” said David Collard, chief executive of Recharge’s parent company Scale Facilitation.
“We have the right plan in place to match and support the region’s energy and ambition to become a major player in the international battery market.”
Britishvolt went into administration in January after failing to secure a £100mln government support package, seeing just 26 of its 300 employees retained and casting doubt over plans for UK-based EV battery production.
Its collapse had marked a “major setback” for the UK’s EV market, said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.
Recharge, a portfolio company of New York-based Scale Facilitation, is building Australia’s first large-scale lithium-ion battery cell factory in Victoria, having been founded in 2022.
“The Britishvolt project will make the UK’s first Gigafactory a reality, creating a strategic economic and security asset which will play a critical role in the UK’s industrial and net zero strategies,” it added.