Little hope for Lotus and Aston Martin
Barely a month ago, the ambitious Britishvolt turned out to be bankrupt. The intended battery supplier of Aston Martin and Lotus now has a buyer: the Australian Recharge Industries. The plan seems to go ahead with the planned gigafactory.
Britishvolt, founded in 2019, had big plans: it wanted to build a huge factory in the United Kingdom where it will make batteries for the car industry, among others. An R&D center for the development of new battery technology was also part of it. The plans were interesting enough to receive the equivalent of €113 million from the British government and to attract Aston Martin and Lotus as future partners. Until the bomb burst on January 17 and Britishvolt went bust.
The trustees have found several interested parties, reports Reuters, but there can only be one winner: Recharge Industries. A fairly unknown name here in Europe. Recharge Industries is active in Australia and is currently setting up its own battery factory there. Recharge Industries parent company Scale Facilitation is as ambitious as it is young. Founded in 2020, the company says it “removes barriers to commercialization” and “pairs innovators with the optimal strategic partners who will adopt and truly scale their innovations.” According to the CEO, David Collard, Recharge Industries is now planning to build a ‘giga battery factory’ in the UK. There is a good chance that Britishvolt’s plans will largely remain intact after the takeover. The deal should be completed within a few days.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl