Electric vehicle battery maker Britishvolt avoids immediate collapse with short-term financing

Electric vehicle charging stations in London, England.

Jon Chalicom | moment | Getty Images

LONDON — Britain-based electric vehicle battery company Britishvolt said on Wednesday it had secured short-term financing, a move that will allow it to stave off administration for the time being. The company said its employees also agreed to a pay cut for November.

In a statement released by Sky News, the company said: “While the slowing economy is currently negatively impacting many corporate investments, at Britishvolt we continue to have positive discussions with potential investors.”

“In addition, we have also received promising approaches from several other international investors in the past few days.”

“The result is that we have now secured the necessary near-term investments which we believe will allow us to bridge the coming weeks to a more secure funding position going forward.”

“To further reduce our short-term costs, our dedicated team of employees have also voluntarily agreed to a temporary pay cut for the month of November.”

Britishvolt is planning to build a gigafactory in Northumberland, north-east England. The company received support from mining giant Glencore, among others.

So-called gigafactories are plants that produce batteries for electric vehicles on a large scale. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is widely credited with inventing the term.

Britishvolt, drawing attention for its optimistic plans, had previously said its factory would have the capacity to produce more than 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs each year.

In January this year, it said the first phase of the Gigafactory would start production in the fourth quarter of 2023 or early 2024.

Great Britain plans to increase the number of electric vehicles on its roads in the coming years.

The authorities want to stop the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2030. They will require all new cars and vans to have zero tailpipe emissions by 2035.

The European Union, which left Great Britain on January 31, 2020, is pursuing similar goals.