And so farewell to Northvolt. The European battery maker’s bankruptcy filing in Sweden has dealt a heavy blow to the continent’s hopes of developing a homegrown electric vehicle battery maker capable of even denting the market dominance of Asian rivals, such as China’s CATL. The lesson, for Europe, should be to back those green technologies where it already has an advantage.
The events of this week have a sense of inevitability. What was once Europe’s best-funded start-up had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US last year. Northvolt had been hoping to secure $1bn to keep its only existing plant running, in Skellefte? in its home country of Sweden. That seemed a tall order. A court-appointed trustee will now sell its assets.
Northvolt is not the only battery maker in Europe, or elsewhere, that has failed, of course. The UK’s great battery hope, Britishvolt, was another high profile casualty in 2023. Battery manufacturing is a highly capital intensive, highly technical industry. Recent weaker-than-expected EV sales have also made investors jittery about the market’s prospects. A slew of individual projects have consequently been cancelled or delayed.