Lars Carlstrom, former co-founder of failed gigafactory company Britishvolt, has reacted furiously to claims made in the UK parliament that he is “not a fit and proper person” to run a gigafactory company and did not know what he was doing.
The Swede said comments made by Darren Jones, Labour member of parliament for Bristol North West and chair of the Business and Trade Committee, was “a complete bunch of lies”. Jones was speaking on 9 May during a hearing of Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee on batteries for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing.
In a question to Ian Constance, chief executive of Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, Jones said: “The committee recently had a visit to Sweden. I can’t disclose who we spoke to, but when we were there someone said to us: the co-founder of Britishvolt, Mr Lars Carlstrom, he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
“Someone should have called us and we would have told you. Of course, he’s been convicted of tax fraud and had to stand down and the assessment of the people we spoke to in Sweden was that he wasn’t one of the few in Europe who actually knows how to make batteries.
“He was someone who just thought you could bring the supply chain together and make it work in a warehouse up north.”
Britishvolt, which went bust in January, was set to have its gigafactory built in north-east England. Carlstrom was co-founder and claims to have found the site for the plant. He is now CEO of gigafactory start-ups Statevolt and Italvolt, based in the US and Italy respectively.
Due diligence
Jones went on to ask Constance: “Surely it’s your job to do due diligence on individuals before you set all the support in place. Did you do that on Mr Carlstrom?”
Constance replied they did a level of due diligence and that Britishvolt achieved a lot before it failed, including the assembly of a strong team. He said Carlstrom left Britishvolt early on.
Carlstrom told BEST he will be contacting his lawyers to defend himself. “It’s not a word which is true at all.”
He said he has no problem doing business in Sweden and has a successful company there with an “extremely strong balance sheet”. It is called Supravolt Holdings AB and is registered for VAT.
Carlstrom sent BEST a legal statement from law firm Schillings which emphasised the spent nature of his conviction for tax fraud. It pointed out that while he was convicted for filing a VAT return in the wrong accounting period, based on incorrect advice, he did not serve a custodial sentence.
He said he left Britishvolt in December 2020 due to disagreement over strategy – not linked to his incorrect tax filing – and it was not his fault the company failed. “The British government didn’t handle this very well, they were really bad. They had a chance to do something really good…But don’t blame me like I’m some sort of criminal.”
Carlstrom said he wanted to create an opportunity for an area in decline, create jobs. “And the thanks for that is he tried to ruin my career and my life. Thank you very much, very kind. Such a prick, a piece of shit. It’s unbelievable.”
Words spoken in the UK parliament, even in committee, are protected by privilege. This means they are subject to the same level of protection from legal action or criminal investigation as words spoken in the main debating chamber.
Hear the comments about Carlstrom at 16:22:50.
Photo: Lars Carlstrom: “Don’t blame me like I’m some sort of criminal.”
