8:26 am, June 26, 2023
The short and chequered past of car battery firm Britishvolt has taken a fresh twist after the outfit’s new owner was raided by Australian police.
The troubled EV firm, which aims to build a battery plant in Blyth, was taken over by Australian outfit Recharge Industries earlier this year.
At the time it was hoped the move would secure the future of the troubled company, following a collapse which saw the majority of its workforce made redundant.
Now however, questions have been raised once again due to a tax investigation by Australian federal police.
Over the weekend, investigators raided the offices of Scale Facilitation and SaniteX, owned by entrepreneur David Collard. Recharge Industries, which is yet to actually pay for Britishvolt, is a subsidiary of the outfit.
During the raid, police seized IT and communications equipment amid concerns that staff at the office had gone unpaid for around a fortnight.
A spokesperson for Scale Facilitation said that it denied any wrongdoing and claimed the visit from police was the result of a ‘misunderstanding’.
Since the firm agreed its deal to buy Britishvolt, the deadline for Recharge Industries to pay for the outfit has been pushed back from the initial date of March 31, the BBC reports.
Speaking when the buy-out was agreed, Collard said he intended to keep the Britishvolt name to produce batteries for high-performance sports cars at a state-of-the-art gigafactory in Blyth.
He also said he was hoping to receive state funding for the project but government interest in the project is said to have ‘cooled’ over recent months.
Car Dealer has approached Britishvolt for comment.
