Johnson Matthey’s electric car battery ambitions take sharp U-turn

The UK firm's big battery bet has flopped. The danger now is that a private-equity predator may swoop

It's a perfect 180-degree strategic U-turn. As recently as April, Robert MacLeod, the chief executive of the FTSE 100 firm Johnson Matthey, whipped up the excitement about the group's work on battery materials for electric vehicles - a very net zero venture and one intended to replace the looming decline in the company's core business of catalytic converters for combustion engines.

A new production plant would be built in Finland, in addition to the one under construction in Poland, and long-term deals to secure supplies of raw materials - nickel, cobalt and lithium hydroxide - had been signed. Johnson Matthey, declared MacLeod, had passed important milestones on our journey towards developing a sustainable battery materials ecosystem".