Like England we're too south-centric. Once ya gets uphill to middle then land is nicely sculptured and quiet without going so far North and risk nosebleeds. You are right about roads - we only use them for going to England for subsidies so no need for chargers here. Mostly we just ride around in tractors. Oh, and we're clever enough to use the sheep to mop up water off the fields and wring them out in reservoirs for export to Liverpool. We gotta grow sheep these days ever since you lot got too grand for clogs and ruined the local clog-wood export industry..Coming from a sheep cuddler that’s quite a statement. I went there once, apparently you have an EV charger somewhere in there don’t you. Why do sheep n carts need roads & electric anyway?
Just a buffer to keep the Atlantic from washing England away
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Britishvolt: Electric car battery plant gets government funding
- Thread starter MrBadger
- Start date
I can’t help but feel super cynical that the company is called BritishVolt. It’s like the name is tailormade to attract investment and - as noted earlier - capitalise on political optics about “investing in British businesses”.
Meanwhile no consumer cars that a battery is made in the UK (or they shouldn’t). They care about how far it gets them in their car of choice. There’s no evidence that UK consumers eschew brands that aren’t UK based, nor should they. Unless there is some powerful USP for this company existing in the UK then I think @UkNorthampton covered it brilliantly.
Meanwhile no consumer cars that a battery is made in the UK (or they shouldn’t). They care about how far it gets them in their car of choice. There’s no evidence that UK consumers eschew brands that aren’t UK based, nor should they. Unless there is some powerful USP for this company existing in the UK then I think @UkNorthampton covered it brilliantly.
Gatsojon
Member
In other words, we failed to heed the advice of my physics lecturer; “don’t let the accountants take over”. Sorry.Expensive land, poor infrastructure, anti-intellectualism, anti-engineer, often hard to get finance (usually SMEs need to borrow against property, finance rarely based on the idea or company). No industrial policy. Short-termism. Rentierism mentality.
Bad middle/top management (some risk-averse, others claiming can-do attitude is enough, even if really daft ideas), pro-beancounter, farming subsidies/deals through old-boys network/corruption (I hope British Volt isn't one of them).
I agree, UK, has invented so much, but whether wartime computing, lead in jet airliners, 80s computing (huge number of kids with programming knowledge), it all gets squandered, rarely supported. USA goes all out to support own companies & squash competitors (Cisco/Huawei, farming).
I would do a lot of due diligence on BV if investing or supplying services on credit. Might all be fine, but well worth checking. I wish them the best of luck but I can't see what competitive advantages the UK has for battery production. If located near Scottish wind power, could use excess, but I don't think the Scot>Eng interconnects are good enough. It looks like Blythe may have been chosen due to closeness of Nissan and Norwegian electricity - en - North Sea Link Apart from lithium (Cornwall?). We don't have special access to minerals. UK has probably got good research in universities, some engineering at/near Nissan. Exporting is uncertain. Often which region/country dominates an industry comes down to a solid comparative advantage. I don't see one, but would like to. The more renewables, cell production in the UK, the better.
Previous chairman/founder has left.
Chairman of Britishvolt quits after tax fraud conviction emerges days after £2.6bn gigafactory plan revealed – Car Dealer Magazine
The co-founder and chairman of Britishvolt has quit after it emerged he was convicted for tax fraud in Sweden more than 20 years ago, just days after thecardealermagazine.co.uk
First 2 don't have wikipedia entries - Meet The Team - Britishvolt
In this thread: "No UK startups or engineering/design led businesses compete these days because they don't get the support like forwarding-looking US businesses do!"
Also in this thread from the same folks: "This won't go anywhere in my opinion, they should do "x" instead! That'd be better, I've got it figured out..." also, regionalism.
Got to laugh at ourselves sometimes...
Also in this thread from the same folks: "This won't go anywhere in my opinion, they should do "x" instead! That'd be better, I've got it figured out..." also, regionalism.
Got to laugh at ourselves sometimes...
Bean counters have ruined most of the engineering base in this country. I work in offshore wind and even now you can see the beans getting reduced
Yep.Bean counters have ruined most of the engineering base in this country. I work in offshore wind and even now you can see the beans getting reduced
Our company is selling off all the profitable bits (Nuclear, Wind) to stay solvent... Sad really
ACarneiro
Active Member
Cynicism wins again, it seems!
Things seem to be unravelling already and it’s not even been a year yet…
Chief executive quits Britishvolt amid gigafactory funding fears — The Times and The Sunday Times
The future of Britishvolt, the ambitious plan to build a £3.8 billion electric battery “gigafactory” on the coast of Northumberland, is at a crossroads after a botched management succession plan left it without a permanent chief executive. The company, which has talked of producing batteries to...
apple.news
First the Gravity development (Tesla and Rivian)... now this.Cynicism wins again, it seems!
Things seem to be unravelling already and it’s not even been a year yet…
Chief executive quits Britishvolt amid gigafactory funding fears — The Times and The Sunday Times
The future of Britishvolt, the ambitious plan to build a £3.8 billion electric battery “gigafactory” on the coast of Northumberland, is at a crossroads after a botched management succession plan left it without a permanent chief executive. The company, which has talked of producing batteries to...
And now the inevitable
Britishvolt: UK battery start-up collapses into administration
The majority of Britishvolt's 300 employees have been made redundant after last minute attempts to find a buyer failed.
www.bbc.co.uk
I suspect someone with a blue rosette (or one in their pocket) has pocket a lot of cash regardless.
UkNorthampton
TSLA - 12+ startups in 1
I don't think anything useful was built. Lots of talk, lots of media (buttered up no doubt). Has more to do with a crypto con than engineering.
The name post-Brexit was cynical. No obvious advantage to doing this in UK, no talk of advantages in tech or manufacturing. Lots of talk though, just about investing, government support.
Depressing.
Jason71
Well-Known Member
Don't we need to make batteries here so that a high enough % content of cars made in the UK count as UK made to avoid import duty when shipping to Europe? If car makers in the UK can't ship to EU without incurring import duty then I think its game over for the UK car industry.
I think it will be hard to avoid that scenario with imported batteries. I guess if the batteries are imported from Europe that might be OK but may not be cost effective.
JupiterMan
Active Member
To be fair this is/was an advantage: with country of origin rules, for exports any car has to satisfy having a minimum % of UK manufacture to be deemed a UK product and to qualify for any trade deals/tariff reductions.
The battery is a substantial chunk of any BEV, so to qualify as a UK BEV it is likely to need a UK battery.
There are some ways around this, eg if you source batteries from the place you are exporting to, but that would very much restrict your market.
Nissan is building a Sunderland battery factory for this purpose, but for other UK auto manufacturers it is more of a problem and could mean they shift BEV production outside of the UK.
In fact we have already seen this with the Mini BEV which is being moved to Leipzig, where BMW is also building a battery factory.
JupiterMan
Active Member
With our freedom of movement gone, poor transport infrastructure, low unemployment and poor social mobility, its not an easy place to build a big project needing many employees.
UkNorthampton
TSLA - 12+ startups in 1
If the battery comes from EU/EEA, should be fine. It's pretending that Chinese/USA components assembled in UK are British that's the problem (I believe).
However, I'm assuming that the British mass-production car industry will end. I don't see any future for it. Design services, advanced/prototype parts production, Formula 1 might remain, but eventually even that will probably go.
Manufacturing Data makes for grim reading. Mini, Jaguar have EU production - not sure if any others. I-Pace is built in Austria, E-Pace assembled (maybe only for EU customers - some sources also say it's built in Austria).
UK production volumes seem too low to me, especially split across many manufacturers/brands/models. At some point it will fall below a critical mass level.
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