become could the uk s richest man own manchester united? andy murray powers to victory for his match at the australian open. it and coming up on the bbc news channel: harvey elliot s on target, but can liverpool seal their spot in the next round of the fa cup, with a win over wolves in their replay? good evening. the electric car battery company britishvolt has collapsed making most of its 300 staff redundant and putting the future of the uk s electric car making industry into serious jeopardy. the company had been planning to build a giant battery making factory in northumberland it was to be a vital part for britain s electric car industry with petrol and diesel engines being phased out by 2030. britishvolt had planned to make around 300,000 batteries a year to power around of a quarter of electric vehicles on the british market. but it has collapsed after months of trouble as it struggled to raise enough money to stay afloat. our business editor simonjack report
we re all going to be faced with, globally, by the end of the century. we will be looking at a stable or declining population. the big challenges the shifting age structure, how we manage the fact that we fewer productive workers but it is something that we will all encounter and be faced with and there is very little we can do about it. ., ~ there is very little we can do about it. . ~ , ., there is very little we can do about it. . ~ i., ., there is very little we can do about to the uk now where the electric car battery company britishvolt has collapsed, making most of its 300 staff redundant. the company had been planning to build a giant battery making factory in northumberland. it was to be a vital part of britain s transition to electric vehicles, but it struggled to raise enough money to stay afloat. our business editor simonjack reports. it s time to power up the future. a bold and ambitious vision. a plant that would produce batteries
to power a new generation of uk made electric cars, creating 3,000 jobs at a state of the art facility in northumberland and thousands more in the supply chain. the current reality is this. a barely touched site, a company gone bust, and nearly 300 workers sacked with immediate effect today. so where did it all go wrong? well, britishvolt was a start up company, so had no track record. their battery technology was only at the prototype stage. and although there were expressions of interest from lotus and aston martin, they had no real customers and therefore no revenue. and yet they were burning through their backers cash fast, nearly going bust last november, and finally collapsing today. this is a setback for the uk s car industry. currently, the uk only has one working battery plant, chinese owned and right next to nissan, which is its only customer. but look at this. around europe, these are the plants that are either working or under construction, with many more planned. and reme
britishvolt, collapses. in ukraine, we have a special report from the front lines near soledar and bakhmut. troops tell the bbc they desperately need western tanks to make progress on the battlefield. and belgian police reveal a key suspect in an eu corruption investigation has cut a deal with investigators. hello and welcome to the programme. we begin in china where an unwelcome milestone has been reached. the country s population fell for the first time since the 1960s and the national birth rate also fell to the lowest it s been since data collection began, in 1949. the announcement on tuesday comes alongside one of china s worst economic performances in almost half a century, its gdp expanding by 3% last year, far short of the government s target of 5.5% growth. the labour force is shrinking, as the country s retired population keeps growing. let s take a look at some of the numbers. china s population last year was over 1.4 billion people, according to official data. that s a decr