Blyth battery factory in doubt...

Unravel_Morrison said:
I think they were hoping to get JLR or one of the other UK based manufacturing sites to come in. It wouldn't amaze me if JLR ended up taking over the site. Their Slovakian operation can be supplied from any of the EU battery manufacturing sites.

If they continue working with Magna Steyr then that would also be the same.
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Why would JLR buy them as a going concern? Surely it would be better to let them go bust and pick up the IP etc on the cheap afterwards. I doubt this size of investment wouldn't be practical for JLR on their own. Things will be a lot clearer once we know where this new money has come from and how much they have put in.
 
motownjunk said:
Why would JLR buy them as a going concern? Surely it would be better to let them go bust and pick up the IP etc on the cheap afterwards. I doubt this size of investment wouldn't be practical for JLR on their own. Things will be a lot clearer once we know where this new money has come from and how much they have put in.
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I'm not saying they'd buy them as a going concern; they'd have wanted them as a customer originally. I think now it's probably more likely that JLR would take over the site (or another) without any of the current BV people involved. As a business, the government would feel a bit safer in offering investment or incentives for a larger entity already having a base in the UK.
 
I'm sure it had nothing to do with it being in the constituency of Labour MP Ian Lavery.
 
This was never going to be a successful commercial concern.

The aim was for a few individuals to get rich in the hope that a large organisation like JLR would come along and buy all the assets.

As flawed an idea as our very own snow dome.
 
No real surprise. The new arena at Gateshead Quays has also been delayed for a while due to funding issues, earthworks and remediation had began and cabins were on-site but another case of them being pulled off. Worrying times.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

See progress on new Newcastle Gateshead Arena amid concerns over rising costs

New pictures have shown how work is progressing on the new arena being built in Newcastle amid concerns over rising costs.
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk www.thenorthernecho.co.uk
 
Original report on this thread

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63457813

'Ian Lavery, the Labour MP for Wansbeck, where the site is based, told the BBC he had spoken to the chairman of Britishvolt on Monday who said the company asked the government for £30m for the project to continue.
He said: "The chairman informs me that the government have replied overnight [with] Grant Shapps the new Business Secretary, saying that they are not prepared to do that and as a consequence it very likely that Britishvolt will go into administration."
Mr Lavery added: "It is fairly and squarely at the door of the government for basically not agreeing to bring monies forward which will ensure that this project will continue. It is absolutely outrageous - what happened to levelling up?"
 
Lefty said:
what happened to levelling up?"
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I imagine it failed that most basic of Tory Government tests...

...the "what's in it for us?" test.

I have no strong knowledge of whether this is good public money saved from following bad money or if it is an opportunity missed but had this happened in (oh I don't know) Essex, would the result have been different?
 
Lemmy_kilmister said:
Ian Levy (Con) is the MP for Blyth Valley.
Ian Lavery (Lab) is the MP for Wansbeck.
😯
I don't know!🤣
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Ian Levy is the Topry MP for Blyth Valley - and loves a photo opportunity. When it was looking positive for BritishVolt, him and Boris Johonson paraded for photos on the other side of the River Blyth trying to promote it as some sort of Tory success story, despite never actually being in the Blyth Valley constituency. Ian Levy is a shockingly bad, nodding dog MP who will be out on his backside at the next GE and by a considerable margin.

Anyhow, Ian Lavery is the Labour MP for neighbouring Wansbeck and it was he who asked Boris Johnson in Parliament where the £100m funding the government promised many moons ago was, and when it would likely be given to BritishVolt. Johnson said the cheque was in the post. He's a liar, an opportunist and a blagger. What's more he is a dishonest, untrustworthy charlatan who wouldn't know either decency or the truth if they bit him on his big, fat ar$3. Shameful and sadly devestating for the local community already blighted by Thatcherism and chronic underfunding.
 
www.chroniclelive.co.uk

Britishvolt calls in administrators following failed takeover talks

The majority of the firm's 300 staff have been made redundant
www.chroniclelive.co.uk www.chroniclelive.co.uk

Britishvolt calls in administrators following failed takeover talks​

The majority of the firm's 300 staff have been made redundant

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Extract:

Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery said: “The reports this morning that Britishvolt have gone into administration following a number of failed takeover bids are extremely disappointing and a massive blow to the region which was set to benefit from the thousands of much needed jobs the project promised to create. This development was once the crown jewel of the Government’s levelling up policy in the North East but is now in grave danger of collapsing.


"Back in July Boris Johnson when he was the Prime Minister told me that the cheque was in the post to Britishvolt, but the reality is they have never received penny from the Government. If they are serious about levelling up the North East the Government need to put their money where its mouth is and get behind a gigafactory being built on this site in Cambois."
 
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Press Release reviously posted on another thread [Now deleted].
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Britishvolt administration ‘potentially catastrophic’ for both the North East and UK’s automotive transition​


  • Tuesday 17 January 2023

Britishvolt, which was planning to build a giga-battery factory in Northumberland, has today (Tuesday) announced that it is going into administration.
Unite national officer for the automotive sector Steve Bush said:
“This is a grim day for the North East and for the just transition to the electrification of the nation’s automotive sector.

“The complete lack of a competent industrial strategy by the government to protect jobs in the UK automotive sector is becoming potentially more catastrophic by the day.

“It is extraordinary that despite the UK automotive sector being required to move to the production of electric vehicles, there are still no UK stand-alone factories making the batteries that are required. The demise of Britishvolt means there are not even any in the pipeline.

“The government’s strategy seems to be to cross their fingers and hope that everything will be ok. The workers in the automotive sector are frankly enraged at this dreadful and total abdication of leadership”

ENDS

[Source: https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-...he-north-east-and-uk-s-automotive-transition/]
 
motownjunk said:
As mentioned before Nissan has its own battery plant. The numbers they are talking about for the Blyth factory the majority of production will surely be for export mainly to the EU.
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Pretty sure that Nissan sold their battery plant stake and the new factory is wholly owned by Envision AESC. Batteries manufactured there will also be sold to other makes.
 
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