Britishvolt in Quebec | A project always accompanied by questions

Britishvolt still dreams of a complex in Bécancour to supply electric vehicles, but after a year and a half of canvassing, it has not yet convinced Quebec to board the project. It would be a “mistake” to exclude the British company from the battery industry, says its founder and CEO, Orral Nadjari.

Julien Arsenault
The Press

The company’s promises may seem ambitious, but it has proven that it keeps its promise, says Mr. Nadjari, in an interview with The Presson the sidelines of his visit to the Conference of Montreal.

“We have been here for 18 months,” he says, alongside former Liberal Prime Minister Philippe Couillard, head of the Canadian branch of Britishvolt. “Who else did this?” We’ve been here and built relationships. »

Founded in 2019, Britishvolt is no longer a start-up company, says its leader. Last February, it secured funding of CAD 2.6 billion, including around 155 million from the UK government, to start a lithium-ion cell factory in the UK. It currently has 300 employees.

Cell manufacturing is the last step before battery assembly. Mr. Nadjari hopes to be the one to fill this step in the chain.

However, he was stingy with details on the progress made in recent months. Britishvolt has targeted the land where it would like to settle in the Bécancour industrial park, the ideal place to develop the battery sector, but it does not yet belong to it.

Mr. Nadjari also did not specify his financial demands made in Quebec and Ottawa which, in recent months, have supported companies such as the joint venture formed by General Motors (GM) and Posco as well as BASF. Not a word either on the funding collected from private investors.

“If we can deploy our vision with the strengths of Quebec [comme l’hydroélectricité]we are talking about a factory of at least 50 gigawatt hours (GWh)”, launches the boss of Britishvolt.

Such a complex, which would be broken down into several phases, would supply some 500,000 electric vehicles annually. This estimate was provided by NorthVolt when announcing a similar project in Sweden last winter.

more questions

Mr. Nadjari says discussions with the Legault government are going well. However, the analysis is not complete in Quebec. In particular, we want to have an idea of ​​Britishvolt’s North American customers before investing. In Europe, letters of intent have been signed with Aston Martin and Lotus, but these are not yet firm contracts.

Both in Quebec and in Ottawa, the company is registered in the register of lobbyists, in particular to solicit financing. Exchanges took place twice last May with François-Philippe Champagne, Federal Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry, as well as his chief of staff Ian Foucher, according to the federal register.

On the Old Continent, Britishvolt enjoys a good reputation and is considered a “serious company”, according to an industry analyst who wishes not to be named.

Like new players in the battery industry, the company faces two major challenges: securing a sufficient supply of battery materials (cathodes and anodes) and attracting customers. According to this analyst, this is the only way for companies like Britishvolt to carve out a place in a market occupied by the major car manufacturers.

Another step has also been added to Britishvolt’s efforts: ensuring that it obtains sufficient volumes of hydroelectricity for its very energy-intensive project. Since the era of surpluses is over, Hydro-Québec is now more selective. The state corporation has begun to distribute its analysis grids to promoters who wish to have access to 50 megawatts or more to assess the impact of each of the proposals.

Britishvolt will have to go through the process.