Britishvolt’s demise is a sad story, but the events of 17 January 2023 felt like an inevitable conclusion to a long-running saga. 

Fundamentally, it had no customers. What good is a gigafactory building batteries if there are no cars being built on the same island to put them in? That absence of customers is a reflection of where the UK is at the moment with its footprint of automotive manufacturing output: there are simply not enough factories making cars at volume.