Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt has abandoned plans to build its Northvolt Fem plant in Borlänge, Sweden. This news comes on top of the announcement from BMW at the end of last week that it was cancelling a €2 billion ($2.15 billion) order for EV battery cells.
The Borlänge site in central Sweden was intended for cathode active material production with capacity of more than 100GWh. The plant, a former paper mill, was under preparation.
The BMW cancellation was on the grounds of delayed deliveries, the German car maker said. It ordered battery cells from Northvolt in 2020, with delivery due to start this year. But Northvolt was facing production delays of two years, leading to the BMW cancellation. Northvolt was BMW’s third battery cell supplier, in addition to Asian manufacturers CATL and Samsung SDI.
BMW said it would instead focus on jointly developing the next generation of EV batteries with Northvolt. BMW is an investor in the Swedish company, with whom it formed a joint technology consortium in 2020.
Last October, Scania CEO Christian Levin told reporters that his Swedish truck manufacturing company was being severely delayed in the shipment of new electric trucks due to the delays in deliveries of batteries from Northvolt.
The company delivered just 222 electric trucks last year, 0.2% of its total, he said. Without the delivery problems from Northvolt, it would have been able to deliver a few thousand. As we reported in March, Northvolt was claiming the tide had turned on late deliveries and production was increasing as it ramped up production, with new lines being added.
The first phase now ramping up is aiming at 16GWh of capacity, but that phase is not planned to be fully running until 2025, according to Northvolt – some three years behind the original schedule.
Borlänge’s Social Democratic council leader Erik Nises said he received a call from Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson to say plans for the new plant had been cancelled. Production was due to have started in 2024 with the creation of up to 1,000 jobs. Nises has since called on Northvolt “to have a social conscience” and not pull out and sell to the highest bidder.
He told the SVT broadcaster there was no prospect of this: “On the contrary, throughout the spring we have been trying to have a broad discussion. But instead we have been getting signals that they were in a sales process in which employment was not at the top of their considerations.”
Northvolt has been contacted for comment.
Photo: Plans to convert Kvarnsveden paper mill in Borlänge abandoned. Northvolt
