A fresh injection of power

With Recharge Industries primed to seal a takeover deal for stricken Britishvolt, a fresh chapter stands ready to be written in the region’s sustainable transport sector. Here, Steven Hugill assesses the fall-out from Britishvolt’s collapse, and how Recharge Industries’ imminent arrival provides great potential to accelerate the North East’s contribution to the green motoring revolution.

4The green motoring revolution and Phil Oakey don’t necessarily strike as instant bedfellows.

But when you’ve written enough stories about the great transport transition, and seen enough sub-editors affix an ‘electric dreams’ style headline to your copy, the connection becomes less contrair.

Indeed, even now to put together an article on sustainable travel sets my mind away to the twinkling opening bars and video lip-syncing of Oakey on ‘Together in Electric Dreams’, the Human League frontman’s mid-1980s collaboration with Giorgio Moroder.

And I found myself in familiar territory again a few weeks ago, when Britishvolt, once tipped to dramatically accelerate UK vehicle battery production, ran out of power and spluttered into administration.

This time, though, it was another of the unlikely musical duo’s creations which came to mind - ‘Good-Bye Bad Times’.

The up-tempo, synth-pop number talks of a fresh start and a change of luck.

And it couldn’t be a more apt soundtrack for the decline of Britishvolt or, more specifically, the emergence of Australia’s Recharge Industries, with the latter aiming to reimagine the region’s - and UK’s - electric motoring dreams.

The takeover deal - which was being finalised with administrators as North East Times Magazine went to print - renews hopes of a jobs bonanza, of resurrecting the anticipation spurred by Britishvolt’s plans to create a £3.8 billion, 3000-job battery plant in Cambois, near Blyth, Northumberland.

So too does it revive optimism around creating fresh meaning for a former pit village, which, since the end of its coal heyday, has been locked in a semi-permanent search for identity.

Cambois, by virtue of its perch where land meets water, is well used to the unforgiving swipes and strikes of North Sea weather.

But Britishvolt’s failure provided an altogether stronger slap across its cheeks.

Its vision had provided an escape, a chance to imagine life on an avenue of prosperity, where a new industrial legacy - beyond cradle-to-grave colliers - would be carved out across future generations.

And the story began brightly enough; the poeticism of transforming an ex-power station coal store into a sprawling renewable battery plant bestowed instant page-turner status.

Furthermore, with a site envied by many for its size, as well as its port links and national grid connections, it had more than sufficient chapters to build a wider narrative.

Crucially, however, Britishvolt didn’t have customers (there were memorandum of understandings with Lotus and Aston Martin). And it didn’t have the cash.

And without those, its arc took a decisive nosedive, taking with it the emotions of Cambois residents, as well as those across the wider region and the majority of the 300 staff on Britishvolt’s payroll.

The episode was a bruising period for the Government too.

Having lauded Britishvolt as a pioneer, in the process committing to a £100 million Automotive Transformation Fund deal, the firm’s demise leaves a number of questions to be answered, not least why Downing Street threw so many eggs into the basket of a company founded in just 2019?

To an extent, its support was obvious.

With the UK woefully short of factories to make the electric batteries needed to offset the end of petrol and diesel vehicle sales across the next decade, and therefore facing increasing market challenges from overseas suppliers, Britishvolt told a story the Government needed to hear.

The fact bosses had chosen the North East for its factory, an area inherent to Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling-up’ agenda, only added to the lure.

But despite the many positive updates and photo calls, including one with former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng suitably togged in high-visibility jacket and hard hat, the threads of the relationship frayed.

Wrangling over Automotive Transformation Fund cash, with the Government wanting milestones to be met before monies were released, achievements Britishvolt was apparently unable to secure without the finance, created a tailspin-like effect.

Staff took pay cuts, and an 11th-hour investor deal provided backing to take Britishvolt into 2023 on a footing, so said officials, which would provide “a bridge to a more secure funding position for the future”.

Within days of the new year, however, the metaphorical crossing had disintegrated, a sad and abrupt ending for a company whose prologue had promised so much.

And one too that provides a reminder of the importance of strong Government and private sector collaboration.

But the story of the North East’s green transport revolution doesn’t end with Britishvolt.

In truth, it was one of many in a much wider narrative.

One that includes Envision AESC and Nissan, which are partnering on a 1000job Wearside battery plant.

One that includes Washington-based power train maker Advanced Electric Machines.

One that includes battery system manufacturer Turntide Technologies.

One that includes recent Teesside recruit Altilium Metals, which promises a 250-job plant that will reprocess elements from spent batteries into key components for new power packs.

And one that should soon include Recharge Industries.

And it all means that while Britishvolt’s existence ended in a nightmare, the North East’s electric dreams are very much still alive.

There's that song again...

Driving ahead with transport changesee page 22

Leading the way again

Transport

Like its famous iron and steel, Teesside’s global manufacturing reputation is one forged from decades of toil and no little skill and pride.

And in a world of seismic industrial change, the area’s standing is poised to rise again.

With the transport sector going through the gears on a journey towards greater sustainability, Teesside is ready as a key navigator, having beaten off competition to welcome Altilium Metals to its commercial fold.

The firm plans to build a 250-job recycling factory, at a yet-to-beconfirmed location, which will recover minerals from old vehicle batteries for use in new power packs.

A copybook example of cleaning up a polluted motoring sector, it’s also a fine example of Teesside’s wider reinvention as a green hub, and a region once again helping to lead the way through meaningful change.

Words by Dr Christian Marston Co-founder at Altilium Metals

Driving ahead with transport change

With the transport sector accelerating towards a greener future, the need for sustainable power has never been more important. And one company helping the transition is Altilium Metals. The firm is bringing a 250-job plant to the Tees Valley, which will recycle elements from spent battery waste into key components for new power packs. Here, Dr Christian Marston, the business’ co-founder, reveals more about its ambitions, and why the Tees Valley was an obvious choice for its factory.

4 200 years after the region’s coal and iron helped to build the industrial world, the North East is once again at the forefront of an industrial revolution.

From Nissan’s flagship electric vehicle plant and Envision AESC’s new gigafactory in Sunderland, to the UK’s first lithium refinery in Teesside, the region is leading the charge to position the UK as a global player in the new green energy economy.

This spirit of innovation, coupled with the rich industrial history of the Tees Valley, is a big part of the reason why Altilium Metals chose Teesside as the location for an ambitious new project that will also play a big part in achieving the UK’s net-zero ambitions, as well as attracting jobs and investment to the region.

With more than a million electric vehicles on our roads, the UK is at the forefront of the transition to greener transport, and the shift from an energy sector based on fossil fuels to one based on minerals.

However, nearly 100 per cent of the components required for electric vehicle batteries are manufactured overseas, with China dominating the supply chain for critical metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.

With soaring demand for these elements, the UK finds itself increasingly reliant on global supply chains that are vulnerable to disruption.

While domestic mining projects might help to meet some of that demand, a more sustainable solution lies in recovering these metals from the tsunami wave of used batteries that is heading our way.

Today, Altilium Metals is the only company in the UK capable of recovering these critical metals from spent electric vehicle battery waste.

Our proprietary technology works to recover more than 95 per cent of the critical minerals and rare earth elements from end-of-life batteries, which can then be reintroduced into the supply chain to build new battery cells here in the UK.

Choosing Teesside as the location for our first UK recycling plant, capable of processing battery waste from 150,000 electric vehicles per year, was a no-brainer. With its world-class workforce, fast and efficient logistics, zero-carbon electricity and a freeport, the region has everything our business needs to succeed.

With this investment of more than £500 million, Teesside will become the centre of a new sustainable supply chain for battery chemicals, helping to drive down costs and carbon emissions, while also providing the energy security needed to attract investment in new automotive gigafactories. In March, we will complete our feasibility study on the plant, and more details of the chosen site will be announced soon.

We expect to create 250 highly-skilled jobs at the plant, with thousands more created in build phase, and we look forward to supporting economic growth in the region and building on its proud tradition of innovation and invention.