Britishvolt ‘farce’ as rescue bidder misses payment deadline

The former boss of Aston Martin has branded the rescue of Britishvolt a “farce” after its prospective owner failed to meet its final payment for the business.

Andy Palmer said Britishvolt had become a “blot on the UK battery landscape” as administrators warned the payment from Australian bidder Recharge Industries was “unpaid and overdue”.

EY has warned in a report to creditors that Recharge Industries has not fulfilled its £8.57 million payment for Britishvolt after agreeing to buy the business in February.

Britishvolt was a start-up that promised to deliver electric car batteries for hundreds of thousands of vehicles from a site in the northeast of England. The company collapsed as it failed to raise equity investment for research and the development of its sites.

Recharge Industries, an Australian firm run by the New York-based investment fund Scale Facilitation, won an auction for the collapsed business run by EY. The Australian company is run by David Collard, a former partner at PwC.

Palmer, who is now chief executive of electric vehicle charging start-up Pod Point, said: “If I’m being completely honest, Britishvolt has become somewhat of a farce. A blot on the UK battery landscape.

“Right now there’s a strong focus on the difficulty of delivering 2030 ambitions, and they will indeed be tricky. But the only way to ensure we get there is with strong industrial policy. You can’t blame the UK government for all of Britishvolt’s failings, but they must be held accountable for an utter shambles of cohesive industrial strategy.”

Ben Kilbey, former communications executive at BritishVolt, said the current state of play for the battery firm was “difficult to comprehend”. Britishvolt collapsed owing about £160 million to unsecured creditors who are unlikely to see a significant dividend from the company’s insolvent estate. Creditors include DC Energy, a manufacturing supplier, and Glencore, the FTSE 100 commodities giant, which are owed £27 million and £20 million respectively.

Kilbey said: “This has turned from one of the biggest, and most positive battery narratives in the UK to a basket case.

“We really need to get real about energy independence and security.”

EY said in a report to creditors that Recharge Industries was in default of its business sale agreement (BSA) for Britishvolt. Recharge Industries has however pushed back against EY’s statement. In a statement to the Telegraph, the company said: “We dispute we are in default.”

EY’s report said: “The joint administrators are using the protections and guarantees afforded in connection with the BSA to pursue the outstanding amounts due from the buyer. Due to commercial sensitivities surrounding the current status of this matter, the joint administrators cannot comment on this situation any further at the moment. A further update concerning this matter will be provided in the next progress report to creditors.”