Northvolt

Northvolt AB was a Swedish battery developer and manufacturer, interested in lithium-ion technology for electric vehicles. Founded in 2015 by two former Tesla executives, it commissioned its first manufacturing plant in Skellefteå Municipality, Sweden in 2021 and announced plans for five others in Europe and North America. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States on November 21, 2024. It subsequently filed for bankruptcy in Sweden on March 12, 2025. It is the largest bankruptcy in modern Swedish industrial history.

History

2015 -- founding

The company was founded as SGF Energy in 2015 by and Paolo Cerruti (now CEO Northvolt North America) who were working in Supply Chain and Operations Planning at Tesla Motors prior to that.

In 2017, the company changed its name to Northvolt. It was founded with their stated aim to supply the automotive industry with electric vehicle batteries. In May 2019, the European Investment Bank offered a loan of 3.5 billion SEK (about €350 million).

2019 -- construction on the site in Skellefteå Municipality starts

In June of the same year, companies such as the BMW Group, Volkswagen Group, Goldman Sachs and Folksam announced that they would invest in the company. In total, the investments amounted to US$1 billion, framed as a way to challenge what was reported as the dominance of Tesla, Inc. and Asian companies such as Toyota and Nissan on the market for electric vehicle batteries. The company started building a battery factory in Skellefteå, Sweden, with the aim to start production of electric vehicle batteries in 2021. The first battery in Skellefteå was assembled in December 2021, and the first customer cell deliveries were made in 2022.

In 2019, Volkswagen and Northvolt announced that a second factory would be built in Salzgitter, Germany, aiming to start production in 2023–2024. The aim was to start production at 16 GWh, and increase it to 24 GWh. In May 2020, Volkswagen announced that it would build the factory largely on its own, and invest 450 million euros in the construction. On 16 July 2020, it was announced that Northvolt and BMW had signed a deal of 2 billion euros, for Northvolt to deliver batteries starting from 2024. The deal with BMW was cancelled in June 2024 because of Northvolt not being able to deliver on time. In 2019, Volkswagen invested 900 million Euros in Northvolt amounting to a share of 20% and a seat on the board.

On 30 July 2020, a €350 million loan was issued to Northvolt by the European Investment Bank with the backing of the European Union's InnovFin programme to build a demonstration line for a new type of battery which it started producing at the end of 2019. As part of the ''Investment Plan for Europe'', Northvolt received a $350 million loan for its Skellefteå factory from the EIB, using the guarantee of the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

News website EURACTIV stated in an article that "Northvolt is quickly building a reputation as the EU’s go-to company for home-grown batteries." On the same day, it was announced that Northvolt had been issued loans amounting to US$1.6 billion from a consortium of commercial banks, pension funds and other financial institutions.

On 22 August 2023, Northvolt raised $1.2 billion amid plans to open a battery plant in Canada. In December 2023, a classified interim report uncovered by Dagens industri showed that the company in the first nine months of 2023 performed with a net loss of about $1 billion (SEK 11 billion). In January 2024 Northvolt raised another $5 billion through green lending.

2024 -- trouble

In 2024, the Northvolt factory in Sweden garnered attention when three employees died outside their work shifts, all within a few months despite being seemingly healthy. A fourth death then occurred by drowning. Swedish police launched a criminal investigation, which Northvolt welcomed saying the incidents were "tragic", but also stressing that the factory employs over 5,000 people, implying that the deaths are not as statistically significant as they may appear at first glance. A leading Swedish toxicologist has argued for closure of the plant for a more thorough investigation to be conducted. In December, 2024 the Swedish police concluded their investigation and found no evidence that the deaths were linked to any crime or hazardous exposures.

On September 23, 2024, Northvolt announced that the company would implement extensive staff reductions. A total of 1,600 employees would be affected by the layoffs, distributed across 1,000 positions in Skellefteå, 400 in Västerås, and 200 in Stockholm. In conjunction with this, Northvolt also announced that the expansion of Northvolt Ett would be discontinued. The Northvolt Labs project in Västerås was paused, but the company would retain the fundamental platforms to enable continued product development.

On November 21, 2024, Northvolt filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, stating it had only $30 million in cash, enough for them to operate one more week, while carrying $5.8 billion in debts. The company secured $100 million in financing for interim operation. The company's co-founder and CEO, Peter Carlsson, resigned the next day, stating the company needed at least $1 billion to continue long-term operation. Investors in the company began to write down their investments, including losses to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and a $400 million loss for Investment Management Corp. of Ontario.

On December 4, 2024, Northvolt announced that it would sell its electric industrial battery division in an effort to cut costs and shrink its business. The company also reported plans to shut down its energy storage systems division. On January 7, 2025, Northvolt announced it was planning to continue developing battery cells while it plans to continue seeking funds to exit its bankruptcy proceedings.

2025 -- bankruptcy

On January 13, 2025, Northvolt sold its remaining stakes in Hydrovolt, its battery recycler division, to Norsk Hydro for 78 million Norwegian crowns ($6.79 million).

On March 12, 2025, Northvolt applied for bankruptcy in Sweden. The Swedish state-owned television company SVT investigated the case in its program "Uppdrag Granskning" some weeks before, and concluded that probably only a very limited quantity of accumulators was sold, and those were produced from intermediate materials purchased from other companies, against the promises of Northvolt that the complete production chain from raw metals to finished accumulator cells would occur on one single site, and "100% in Sweden". Workers reported anonymously that substantial parts of the production process would be dysfunctional. The bankruptcy caused among other people losing jobs, people without Swedish citizenship additionally being deported, the plans of the Skellefteå Municipality for "green growth" crushed, and loss of money in pension funds. Nevertheless Peter Carlsson took a private gain of ca 200'000'000 SEK from the company in good time before leaving, and considered this as perfectly appropriate.

Northvolt's bankruptcy trustee announced on that it had reached an agreement with key stakeholders for financial guarantees to allow the company to continue operations on a smaller scale. After filing for bankruptcy on March 12, Northvolt, once Europe's top contender in the electric vehicle battery market, will maintain operations with about 1,700 employees, down from 5,000. Also, some additional staff will be employed in foreign subsidiaries. The agreement is expected to be formalized soon, with the scaled-back operations seen as crucial for potential future sale of the business.

In May 2025, former Northvolt employee Mikaela Lundh published a book titled "Northvolt – en skildring inifrån" (rough translation: "Northvolt – a testimony from inside"), revealing that the company’s leadership was aware of significant production and financial issues as early as 2022. Despite internal concerns, management chose to withhold this information to avoid alarming investors and customers. The book details how initial battery cell tests in 2022 showed unacceptable defect rates, and how challenges such as humidity control, automation failures, and component delays plagued the production process. Financial analysts within the company warned of escalating costs and diminishing capital, but these warnings were reportedly downplayed by executives. The leadership also allegedly threatened to dismiss employees suspected of leaking information to the media. On 2025-05-22 the bankruptcy manager decided that the limited production still ongoing at that time is to be completely stopped successively during June, while there reportedly was good progress in efforts to sell certain parts of the company.

Locations

The headquarters of Northvolt are in Stockholm, Sweden.

Research and Development

Its center for research and development is situated in Västerås, Sweden.

Northvolt Ett

Northvolt Ett (swedish: "one") is a gigafactory located in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, with a goal output of 60GWh. When finished, it would be the largest factory in Swedish history, possibly creating challenges for newcomers and the existing community. The nearby hydropower plant of Skellefteå Kraft provides renewable energy for the factory. Nearby mines in Sweden and Finland can supply some of the needed metals like nickel and cobalt.

In late December 2021, the company announced that Northvolt Ett, with 500 workers, had produced its first batch of prismatic cells, as part of its machinery commissioning process.

Factory completion and initial customer shipments were achieved in 2022. The company projects battery output of 16 gigawatt hours (GWh), enough for ~300,000 EVs, by 2024. With full production lines and staffing, the plant expects to produce 60 GWh of batteries with 3,000 employees.

For the first three quarters of 2023 the factory output was 79,8MWh of battery storage equivalent.

On September 23, 2024, Northvolt announced that the expansion of Northvolt Ett would be discontinued.

On October 8, 2024, Northvolt announced that its subsidiary Northvolt Ett Expansion AB filed an application for bankruptcy at the District Court of Stockholm.

Northvolt Drei

At the beginning of 2022, the company announced its intention to build another battery factory in Dithmarschen near Heide, Germany. The new plant, which is to provide work for about 3000 employees, is to produce battery cells with a capacity of about 60 GWh per year. The project would be according to Northvolt be powered by “almost 100% renewable energy”. In January 2024, the Northvolt Drei gigafactory was green lit following €902 million funding approval from the European Commission under the aid initiative and approval by local municipalities. Construction of the factory officially began on March 25, 2024. The first cell assembly is scheduled to start in the second half of 2027, followed by the factory ramp-up.

Northvolt Volvo Cars Joint Venture "Novo Energy"

In the vicinity of the Volvo plant near Gothenburg, Northvolt is building a new lithium-ion battery factory that will supply not only Volvo but also the Polestar brand. Production is scheduled to start in 2025. On October 30, 2024, Volvo Cars announced to invoke its redemption rights to acquire Northvolt’s shares in NOVO Energy. According to Volvo Cars, Northvolt has not fulfilled its financing obligations.

Northvolt Fem

Northvolt Fem (Swedish: five) is the second gigafactory planned by Northvolt in Sweden. It is to be built on the site of the Kvarnsveden paper mill in Borlänge. The patch was purchased from Stora Enso and is Northvolt's first converted factory site. It is scheduled to open in 2024. The factory is designed to have a peak capacity of more than 100 gigawatt hours of cathode material. Northvolt has at the same time entered in a development agreement with Stora Enso who provides lignin-based hard coal from sustainably managed forests as anode material for Northvolt.

Northvolt Six

In the fall of 2023, Northvolt announced a new battery gigafactory to be built near Montreal, Canada. Initially the factory intended to start production in 2026, but this timeline is now likely delayed 12 to 18 months according to Quebec official Pierre Fitzgibbon.

Northvolt Cuberg (Advanced Technology Group)

2021 Northvolt acquired the Northern California start-up Cuberg. The group focuses on incremental improvements in lithium-ion technology to enable applications such as aviation. Cuberg had spun out of Stanford University in 2015 and has production facilities in San Leandro. Cuberg after third party testing has claimed to have achieved a near doubling of Lithium-metal cell cycle life.

Northvolt together with Galp has selected the port city of Setúbal as location for its advanced lithium conversion unit.

References

External links

* {{Official website

Swedish companies established in 2015
Electric vehicle battery manufacturers
Manufacturing companies based in Stockholm
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024
Battery manufacturers