Electric Vehicles:Batteries and recycling

[myglaren]

[myglaren]

Looks like British Volt is going under.

Britishvolt is expected to fall into administration on Tuesday morning, the BBC understands, after hopes of a last-minute bid for the company were dashed.

A notice is expected to be filed in insolvency courts, according to people familiar with the matter.

The firm, which plans a factory to make electric car batteries, is holding an all-staff meeting at 11:30 on Tuesday.

It is understood the company wants to tell staff before making a public announcement.

Beeb.

[Gibbo2286]

The vultures are circling I'm sure, ready to pick up the bits.

[NewcastleFalcon]

The latest in the BritishVolt and its aftermath saga picked up by Steve. In simple summary

1. Select a start-up firm which has never made a battery or constructed a battery factory, and which hasn't any track record or existing customers in the Auto industry, to be the preferred developer for the first "flagship" battery gigafactory in the UK.

2. Wait a short while before it goes bust. Sell at a knockdown price to another consortium who have never made a battery or built a battery factory and have no existing customers in the Auto industry.

3. Wait a short time while they try to sell on their interest without doing anything to progress the construction of the factory.

Entirely predictable.

Recharge Industries: Britishvolt buyer failed to pay UK staff for months

An Australian firm which bought the collapsed battery maker Britishvolt has failed to pay its UK staff for the last four months, the BBC has learned. Recharge Industries took control of Britishvolt after it went into administration in January. The takeover has not gone smoothly, with some £2.5m of the purchase price still unpaid months after it was due. However, sources within Recharge Industries insist a deal with a new investor is imminent.

BBC.

My own view as stated previously on the thread

The battery Factory at Sunderland will happen before the battery factory at Blyth, and for the battery factory at Blyth to progress the struggling start-up Britishvolt (edit...and now their current successor Recharge Industries) may well have to hand the baton on to a global battery maker that can actually build a battery factory and make it happen

Battery production is not now a business for startups; it is an industry with huge players through which all the intellectual property, and innovation and development into industrial scale production flows. The top 10 electric vehicle battery producers are all from the far-east, and have supply contracts with global carmakers. The only sizeable battery maker in the UK is Chinese firm Envision AESC that supplies Nissan and that's the advantage which will see the Sunderland Gigafactory turn into a reality, while the Blyth Development currently limps along.

UK: Envision AESC lays foundation for Sunderland gigafactory

[NewcastleFalcon]

Can't beat writing a strategy. Meanwhile China are annihilating the competition and are light years ahead. Those backbones of the UK's auto industry Stellantis and Nissan, Stellantis are partnering with CATL, and Nissan's Chinese Partners AESC are the only ones constructing a battery factory right now and the BritishVolt experience was a disaster from the start and still is. Few more details here, not looking good https://www.electrive.com/2023/11/21/br ... -by-staff/

I think I'll wait until the film comes out, but its here for the record...
UK government announces battery strategy
https://www.electrive.com/2023/11/28/uk ... -strategy/

Neil

[myglaren]

[myglaren]

Adding caffeine can enhance the efficiency of fuel cells, reducing the need for platinum in electrodes and significantly reducing the cost of making them, according to researchers in Japan.

Fuel cells are attracting interest as an alternative energy storage technology in a variety of applications, from electric vehicles to powering datacenters, yet they can be costly as they use expensive material.

Researchers at the Graduate School of Engineering at Chiba University, Japan, claim to have discovered that adding caffeine can boost their efficiency, reducing the amount of platinum required and thus making them less expensive.

The Register

[NewcastleFalcon]

Not the entire story but as Steve has dug out today viewtopic.php?p=797054#p797054 , the former BritishVolt Factory site at Blyth is soon to become the possession of another set of "Investors" this time with plans to create Europe's Biggest Data Centre. Believe it when it happens....

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/f ... b397&ei=18

One of the world’s largest investment companies is set to take over the former Britishvolt site in Northumberland to create a series of data centres that will create hundreds of jobs.

American firm Blackstone and its data centre subsidiary QTS have reached agreement with Northumberland County Council and the owners of the land at Cambois, near Blyth, that should bring to an end a series of false dawns for the key regional employment site. If successful, the scheme could mark a £10bn investment into the North East.

The story as previously told on this thread.

The latest in the BritishVolt and its aftermath saga picked up by Steve. In simple summary

1. Select a start-up firm which has never made a battery or constructed a battery factory, and which hasn't any track record or existing customers in the Auto industry, to be the preferred developer for the first "flagship" battery gigafactory in the UK.

2. Wait a short while before it goes bust. Sell at a knockdown price to another consortium who have never made a battery or built a battery factory and have no existing customers in the Auto industry.

3. Wait a short time while they try to sell on their interest without doing anything to progress the construction of the factory.

Entirely predictable.

My own view as stated previously on the thread

The battery Factory at Sunderland will happen before the battery factory at Blyth, and for the battery factory at Blyth to progress the struggling start-up Britishvolt (edit...and now their current successor Recharge Industries) may well have to hand the baton on to a global battery maker that can actually build a battery factory and make it happen

Battery production is not now a business for startups; it is an industry with huge players through which all the intellectual property, and innovation and development into industrial scale production flows. The top 10 electric vehicle battery producers are all from the far-east, and have supply contracts with global carmakers. The only sizeable battery maker in the UK is Chinese firm Envision AESC that supplies Nissan and that's the advantage which will see the Sunderland Gigafactory turn into a reality, while the Blyth Development currently limps along.

UK: Envision AESC lays foundation for Sunderland gigafactory

Neil

[myglaren]

Very annoying bloke but could be worth watching.

[myglaren]

[NewcastleFalcon]

This originally posted elsewhere is relevant to this thread

Here's a podcast about battery chemistry..

Interesting and informative but a bit long.

I take the phrase "Lead The World" with a pinch of Salt. May be totally accurate in that specific field of battery testing, but imagine if the UK really was the world leader in battery tech, by now 2024 we would have at least one battery factory producing batteries at scale, and CATL and BYD and the like would be beating path to our door to establish scale production at the home of the finest battery intellectual property on the planet. Use their undoubted commercialisation expertise to partner with our leading battery tech.

They haven't (yet!). The dominant battery manufacturers in the world, are companies from China, South Korea, and Japan, have their own R&D and consequent IP, & turn battery tech into production at scale. The UK/Europe/USA are currently miles behind on that measure.

Neil

[bobins]

I'll plonk this here, but it could go in several threads.
This article is published by that well known EV hating publication The Grauniad (joke ! ) so you may want to get the details from elsewhere

Batterymaker Northvolt to cut 1,600 jobs amid electric car ‘headwinds’
Move comes after weeks of uncertainty over reports of financial problems as green vehicle sector struggles

"The Swedish batterymaker Northvolt is to cut 1,600 jobs, in response to “headwinds” blowing through the electric car industry.
The battery company announced redundancies across three of its sites on Monday, including 1,000 in Skellefteå, in northern Sweden, where it is suspending the expansion of Northvolt Ett, Europe’s first homegrown battery gigafactory.
The company, which has been seen as Europe’s most promising contender to China’s battery producers, will also cut 400 jobs in Västerås, in central Sweden, where Northvolt Labs is based, and 200 in Stockholm, home to its head office."
"The cuts are the latest in a wave of job losses sweeping the industry, including 14,000 announced by Elon Musk’s Tesla earlier this year and thousands linked to potential factory closures by Volkswagen in Germany."
"Separately, the Swedish broadcaster SVT reported on Monday that faulty pipes at Northvolt’s factory in Skellefteå, which is close to the Arctic Circle, have leaked a toxic chemical, NMP, used in battery manufacturing because the facility was not built to withstand the cold."

Full article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... car-market

[NewcastleFalcon]

Not encouraging to see Northvolt maybe heading the way of BritishVolt, but where do European, USA, and United Kingdom EV Battery makers feature in the top ten in the world Unsurprisingly late to the party and nowhere, absolutely miles behind the far east which occupies all 10 slots.

The top 10 are global companies in the main who also manufacture/partner with automakers outside their "home" Country, and absolutely dominate the world market, and have partnerships and contracts to supply automakers across the world.

The top ten according to this

CATL 37.8% (China), BYD 15.8% (China) LG Energy Solutions 12.9% (South Korea) SK On 4.8% (South Korea)
CALB 4.6% (China) Samsung SDI 4.5% (South Korea) Panasonic (4.4%) (Japan) Gotion High Tech 2.5% (China) EVE Energy 2.1% (China) Sunwoda 2.1% (China)

The less significant players many of whom are also from the far east take 8.5% of the World market as of 2023.

Its not surprising that the big players can out compete the start-ups in Europe, and that the innovation and IP in Battery tech will come from these companies.

Latest from CATL, 15 year warranty, 1,500,000 km battery for buses and heavy transport widely reported if you want to find it. If you can't be bothered to search try this https://electrek.co/2024/04/03/catl-lau ... es-15-yrs/

Neil

[bobins]

Look at it from the other point of view though - IIRC there was some reluctance from the UK Gov to invest much in BritishVolt, maybe it's because the Gov didn't wholly believe their own hype about the great future of UK battery production. Maybe it's because they could see there was going to be a rapid cooling of the EV market (cf: Northvolt) in the not too distant due to Inevitable market forces / human nature. Maybe the current situation is that battery production might be a 'boom and bust' scenario..... though with the very obvious notion that there will be a better market for them at some unidentified point in the future.
If you were an investor, would you put money into anything other than Chinese / far east battery production ?

[NewcastleFalcon]

That's pretty much the conclusion that European car makers are reaching whether short term or long term on batteries. Partner with the Chinese and Far east firms, rather than consume investment attempting to build the fabled gigafactories, which just cant compete with the likes of CATL and BYD. The same is true of software and infotainment, and developing new models.

This is a decent enough up to date article Stellantis CEO follows Chinese route to avoid EV tariff 'trap'

The Chinese auto industry is innovative, has high productivity and low cost, produces EV's for the home market at European market and European automotive industry destroying prices. Even with the tariffs the Chinese Auto Industry can land vehicles on the shores of Europe which match or slightly undercut the European based factories and still make more profit on each vehicle than selling in the home Chinese Market.

Carlos telling it how it is may not be popular, and Herbert Diess who did a similar thing at VW a few years ago and was bang on right, was shown the door shortly afterwards.

Neil