After failing to find investors to rescue the company, Britishvolt has now called EY administrators to assist it.
According to Proactive, the Northumberland-based company filed for insolvency today and EY administrators are being appointed.
Management had planned to inform its 300 employees that rescue efforts were unsuccessful before confirming publicly on Tuesday afternoon.
In a desperate attempt to find investors, a consortium of Indonesian investors showed potential interest in the company. They valued it at less than 10 percent of its value a year ago, just over PS30mln.
The company predicts that production will not begin until 2025 due to rising interest rates and high energy costs. This is two years later than originally planned.
There was also hope that the company, which was looking to build an EV battery ‘gigafactory” in Blyth worth PS3.8bn, might find support from blue-chip investors like Ashtead Group PLC and Glencore PLC.
The government refused to pay an earlier payment of PS100mln from the Automotive Transformation Fund last autumn. This was because the investment was intended to be made in stages as the development of the factory reached certain milestones.
Glencore, a FTSE 100 listed commodities group, provided emergency funding in November. However this was not enough to keep the fund running for a few more weeks to attract additional investment.
According to one shareholder, despite several possible solutions being offered, management wanted the company to be placed into administration.
This could indicate that one or more directors, or investors might be interested in purchasing the company as part of a pre-packaged administration deal.