A depiction of the Britishvolt battery in the North East of England.
The U. K. ‘s efforts to expand a local battery giant for electric vehicles are in jeopardy, as three-year-old Britishvolt mulls promoting its main factory site, according to other people familiar with the matter.
Britishvolt is in talks to sell its 93-hectare (230-acre) land in Cambois, northern England, to Slovakian startup Inobat, said the resources, who asked to be identified because the discussions are confidential.
Inobat has features such as a merger or acquisition of Britishvolt to get the site, the resources said.
Britishvolt declined to comment. Inobat said it compared European sites, adding northeastern England and Spain’s Castilla y Leon region, for its next plant and declined to comment further.
Britishvolt, subsidized through mining giant Glencore, has plans to build one of the UK’s largest mobile electric vehicle factories as it fights for a slice of the developing sector. Although the company has signed framework agreements with automakers such as Aston Martin and Lotus Cars, it has still secured corporate commitments.
In August, Britishvolt postponed the start of production at Cambois until mid-2025 from an initial 2023 target that had expired, bringing up emerging interest rates, inflationary pressures and sky-high energy costs.
The talks suggest Britishvolt’s high-flying ambitions could be in trouble. The company’s founder, Orral Nadjari, announced his departure in August, with former Ford Motor ceo Graham Hoare as interim chief executive.
While Cambois is one of Inobat’s favorite spots for a plant, there are still other places, one of the other people said. In June, the Bratislava-based company agreed to source batteries for the electric plane from German air taxi company Lilium.
The British government, keen to expand a local cell-making industry as it prepares to ban sales of new petrol cars until the end of this decade, promised investment for the Cambois plant project. Britishvolt paintings at the installation last year.
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