New Britishvolt boss spells out his vision for future, and says Cambois factory has potential to be global player

David Collard, of Recharge Industries, made the bold statement during a strategy meeting in Newcastle last week.

Organised by the North East England Chamber of Commerce, Mr Collard spelled out his vision for Britishvolt and explained more about the significant business opportunities the project will generate.

He said: “This will be a huge project for a long period of time, as energy transition is a growth market and it is not going to change.

"The UK has the potential to, and could become, the global experts in this field.

“The North East England Chamber of Commerce and the business community are a very important part of this. It’s vital that we have a strong regional support base and there are lots of global opportunity partnerships in this region.

"We need local, national and international partners to compete globally, and I want to see more local people and businesses involved in contracts.”

Britishvolt entered into administration in January after failing to secure sufficient funding to build the electric car battery plant in Cambois.

After a competitive and fast-moving administration process, Recharge Industries – a portfolio company of US-based Scale Facilitation – completed acquisition earlier this month.

Mr Collard said the Britishvolt brand name would remain, with the business initially focusing on batteries for energy storage.

It is hoped the gigafactory will create 8,000 jobs on site and in the supply chain, with work due to start in six to 12 months.

John McCabe, chief executive of North East England Chamber of Commerce, said: “This is a huge opportunity for the North East. This transformative project has the potential to place the North East, and the UK, at the front of battery manufacturing.

“As well as creating thousands of jobs, it’s an opportunity to build a supply chain for other businesses in the region to play their part in our economic renewal. The North East has an incredibly skilled workforce and local partners, including the Chamber, are very eager to provide support for the project.

"These are incredibly exciting times for our region.”