Britishvolt rubbishes funding claims made in Sunday newspaper

In the latest edition of The Sunday Telegraph, writer Matthew Lynn penned a comment piece about why the British taxpayer should keep out of the electric vehicle business.

In it, he wrote: “We have already poured lots of public money into the ill-fated Britishvolt.”

However Britishvolt, a start-up company which hopes to create thousands of new jobs when it opens the country’s largest electric car battery factory in Northumberland in a few years, was quick to debunk Mr Lynn’s claims, saying he was “factually incorrect”.

A spokesman added: “While the UK government announced in January its support for the business, which was then further confirmed in July, the company has not yet drawn down any of the grant funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Automotive Transformation Fund.

“No British public money has been accessed by Britishvolt to date, via the ATF, as can be verified by the Advanced Propulsion Centre.”

He added Britishvolt was continuing to work on several potential scenarios offering the longer-term sustainability needed to enable the company to build a battery cell factory and manufacturing business.

An announcement about how that might happen is expected to be made in the new year.

Earlier this month, Britishvolt managed to stave off administration by securing extra funding to keep it afloat in the short-term. Staff have also agreed to a temporary pay cut.

It has had a challenging few months due to ‘rampant’ inflation and the soaring cost of energy, which has led to production being pushed back to mid-2025.