Britain should give up on plans for gigafactories making batteries for electric cars and accept that it cannot compete with countries with lower labour costs, according to an energy expert.
Britishvolt, a start-up that planned to build a huge factory in Blyth, Northumberland, went into administration earlier this month owing £100 million to creditors.
Andy Mayer, chief operating officer and energy analyst at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), said Britishvolt was always a “highly risky project” and he said the government should walk away from it or risk a repeat of the DeLorean affair.
Mayer told The Epoch Times: “Britishvolt didn’t just fail because it doesn’t make any sense to try and lead the world in battery manufacturing from the UK. It failed because their specific expression of that technology wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t ready. Nobody really wanted to buy it. So the government money doesn’t change that.”…