The ailing Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt is cutting costs and announcing job cuts. Among other things, the company announced on Monday that the production of cathode material at the site in Skelleftea in northern Sweden would be discontinued.
It is still unclear how many jobs will be lost. A facility in Borlänge in central Sweden will be canceled. For the work in Poland a partner is being sought. The company is sticking to the plant in Heide in Schleswig-Holstein, but there could be delays. The company plans to present details in the fall.
Job cuts through austerity program
As part of the strategy review, the company is taking initial measures to strengthen its core business in Sweden. The work at the locations in Gothenburg and Canada for future battery factories would continue next to the location in Heide. Northvolt is initially focusing on large-scale production of battery cells. At the same time, the company is reducing costs and exploring strategic partnerships. This leads to a reduction in the total workforce.
At the beginning of July, Northvolt boss Peter Carlsson (53) emphasized in an interview with the Swedish business newspaper “Dagens industri” that the company had been a little too aggressive in its expansion plans. Carlsson still shows himself to be a permanent optimist, also to the manager magazine.
Numbers show how far behind the company is. Northvolt originally wanted to achieve a total production capacity of 16 gigawatt hours by 2023, enough for more than 250,000 electric cars. Optimist Carlsson hasn’t come anywhere near that far. At the end of July, the output was still less than one gigawatt hour, according to those in the industry. Carlsson, celebrated as the “Messiah”.
, which has raised 13 billion euros from its backers to date, is taking significantly longer than promised.
Battery cells planned for a million electric cars
Northvolt wants to build battery cells for up to a million electric cars per year at Heide. The Chancellor, among others, gave the starting signal for the construction of the 4.5 billion euro project at the end of March Olaf Scholz (66; SPD) and Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (55; Greens).
3,000 jobs are expected to be created in the factory. The federal and state governments are supporting the battery factory with around 700 million euros. There are also possible guarantees for a further 202 million euros that still need to be approved.
Northvolt has recently had to contend with a series of setbacks. So has the car manufacturer BMW canceled a billion-dollar order for the company, like manager magazine
brought to the public. The reason for the decision was that Northvolt had difficulties fulfilling the contract. The company is behind schedule and produces too much scrap.