Bad summer for Northvolt
Skellefteå Northvolt’s battery factory in Skellefteå has had a bad summer, with various problems piling up.
In mid-June, Northvolt announced that it was scrapping plans to build a battery factory in Borlänge in Dalarna, on Stora Enso’s closed paper mill Kvarnsveden industrial area. Great disappointment in Borlänge. Northvolt explained that it had to focus on getting production and profitability in order in the started business, expansion will have to wait.
A few days later, it became known that German BMW, one of Northvolt’s key customers, is withdrawing an order worth around SEK 22 billion, which corresponds to four percent of the total order backlog. The reason is reportedly that BMW is unhappy with production delays and with the quality of the batteries produced so far. BMW is not only a major customer, it is also the eleventh largest shareholder in Northvolt.
At the same time, there have been three mysterious deaths of employees this spring and summer. The connection between the deaths and the factory is being investigated by the police.
Since then, the summer has continued with negative publicity for Northvolt.
At the end of June, Toyota Material Handling announced that it was stopping the work of its service technicians at the factory in Skellefteå because of the three deaths.
At the same time, Dagens Industri reveals that the chairman of the board, Jim Hageman Snabe, has been on sick leave since the beginning of the year and that Tom Johnstone has led the board work in his absence. Jim Hageman Snabe tells the newspaper Börsen that he does not intend to return to Northvolt’s board. The board holds an emergency meeting the same day.
Dagens Nyheter reports that since 2019 there have been 26 serious accidents at Northvolt’s factory. According to DN, there are safety deficiencies in the factory.
Northvolt’s CEO Peter Carlsson says in an interview with Dagens Industri that they will review the international expansion plans.
The German newspaper Automobilewoche writes that Volkswagen has set up an internal working group to assess whether Northvolt can deliver according to plan.
Northvolt’s development is a dramatic sequence that will continue during the fall.
Lennart Håkansson, North Sweden Business
