Northvolt Files For Bankruptcy as Europe's Battery Champion Loses Spark 27
Swedish battery maker Northvolt has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. and announced CEO Peter Carlsson's departure following a year marked by production delays and workforce reductions.
The company, once viewed as Europe's challenger to Chinese battery dominance, reported $1.2 billion in losses against $128 million revenue for 2023. Despite securing $15 billion in funding and $50 billion in orders by late 2023, with major stakeholders including Volkswagen (21%) and Goldman Sachs (19%), Northvolt faced mounting challenges. BMW canceled a $2 billion contract in June, prompting job cuts and project suspensions.
The company, once viewed as Europe's challenger to Chinese battery dominance, reported $1.2 billion in losses against $128 million revenue for 2023. Despite securing $15 billion in funding and $50 billion in orders by late 2023, with major stakeholders including Volkswagen (21%) and Goldman Sachs (19%), Northvolt faced mounting challenges. BMW canceled a $2 billion contract in June, prompting job cuts and project suspensions.
So much for "we can do that ourselves" (Score:1)
Looks like the actual cells for all moden battery technologies will continue to come from China.
Re: (Score:2)
Looks like their techniques of dumping succeeded.
People accused China of dumping back in the 200x's, claiming they'd raise prices once the competition was gone. Here we are, twenty years later, and ... the batteries are cheaper than ever.
Protectionists have cried wolf on this too many times.
If we're serious about stopping global warming, we need cheap batteries and solar panels—and that means Chinese.
begging Russia for natural gas, but begging China for batteries
That's not a good analogy. Europe needs to import gas every day just to keep the lights on. But batteries will continue to work even if no new batterie
Not actually going out of business (Score:2)
Wait... a Swedish company is filing for bankruptcy in the US?
So, the company isn't actually going out of business, only the US branch.
How? (Score:3)
In today's climate, how can a battery company lose money? That's got to be difficult!
Despite securing $15 billion in funding and $50 billion in orders by late 2023
Seriously, how do you lose money with an order book like that?
Re: (Score:2)
Based on the summary they failed to deliver and orders got cancelled.
Re: (Score:2)
Based on the summary they failed to deliver and orders got cancelled.
The summary appears to unfairly identify BMW as their downfall. That’s 2 billion. That only leaves another forty-eight fucking billion to question about planned failure and embezzlement.
(Would probably be trivial to hide and run off with a couple hundred million in no-extradition fun funds with that kind of money being (kinda) regulated and audited..)
Re: (Score:2)
I assume BMW cancelling is a symptom of them not being able to deliver.
Of they are not able to deliver I would assume that means they aren't gonna see any/much of that 50 billion, already cancelled or not.
If the 15 billion didn't get them where they need to be, and they're very far away from bing there, it seems pretty likely nobody is lending them more money so they go bankrupt.
That 50 billion in orders is useless if it'll take them 50 years to produce them, or if they will be produced at a gross loss.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, things like this:
And in the US, at least....well, demand for EVs has dropped over the past years with people finding out they aren't quite the "paradise" people put them up to be....
Like if you can't charge at home....lack of charging infrastructure unless you live on one of the coastal areas...and the cost.
ICE is still doing fine here, and the hybrids ar
Re:How? (Score:4, Informative)
> Seriously, how do you lose money with an order book like that?
By not being able to produce a sellable product in the needed quantity.
Northvolt is trying to do to many thing at once; they are trying to produce bleeding-edge cells as well as enable high recycled content manufacturing. All that R&D costs money and takes time, and turning that R&D into production lines takes more money and more time. They are quickly running out of both.
Basically all of the Chinese manufacturers have decades of experience manufacturing batteries and related technologies, and have only recently pivoted to the kinds of large scale systems in demand now. For them it's a relatively easy transition. They have their R&D set up, they have all the in-house production experience, and most importantly they have their existing customer base and revenue streams to sustain them through the transition.
When Tesla built their first gigafactory, they basically just copy-pasted existing production lines to produce cells that were already commodity class, and they still burned over $6B (nearly twice what they thought it would cost) to get it running.
=Smidge=
Hydrogen cars (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose the EU could slap on 100%-200% tariffs on the Chinese EV imports, or whatever it takes to put pricing on par with domestic offerings.
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose the EU could slap on 100%-200% tariffs on the Chinese EV imports, or whatever it takes to put pricing on par with domestic offerings.
We did that in the USA because this country mostly just plays lip service to achieving climate goals, whereas the EU kind of takes the situation a bit more seriously.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Hydrogen cars (Score:4, Interesting)
My guess is that the EU will slowly transition towards hydrogen,while continuing to allow IC engines for the forseeable future.
I would be very surprised. The difficulty of storing hydrogen in a lightweight vehicle are not likely to be solved any time soon. Low pressure gas means low capacity, high pressure gas takes heavy tanks, storing it as hydrated metals even heavier, and liquid hydrogen takes a lot of power to keep cryogenic.
Not because it's better for the planet,
You got that right. Hydrogen is currently produced by cracking natural gas: it is a fossil fuel.
Slashdot losing more people. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
A few of us still here.
Not sure what you're seeing, I've not gotten any popups like that before....
What browser and ad blocker are you using?
Re: (Score:2)
Noscript with Firefox showed this warning.
The maintainers of this site, slashdot.org are now pulling in this Javascript dependency.
Re: (Score:2)
What Is Chapter 11? (Score:3)
But there are no guarantees for Northvolt's future, and the technology is perhaps surprisingly difficult. The company supplies batteries but too few.
Moneygrab scam. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Several Northvolt factories will continue to operate.