This is one of the most dramatic affairs for the European automobile industry which is currently trying to set up a real local sector for the manufacture of electric cars. Northvolt, this Swedish company founded in 2015 which already swallowed up some 13 billion euros of funds to develop large production capacities for car batteries using NMC (Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt) technology, announced last November that it had reached the stage of cessation of payments.
Counting notably Volkswagen and the Goldman Sachs bank among its investors and intended to supply numerous European automobile manufacturers with batteries such as BMW, Northvolt was thus gambling for its survival in recent days with a vote of its shareholders who had two possibilities: start total liquidation or rather a process of restructuring. It was the second option that was chosen, giving society some hope.
We will have to find more than a billion dollars
As Reuters journalists recall, Northvolt had 6,600 employees at the end of last year and had only $30 million in cash for nearly six billion dollars in debt.
In addition to rigorous restructuring, the company must now find between 1 and 1.2 billion dollars to hope to continue your activity. Scania, a brand of the Volkswagen group, has already paid $100 million in loans and other funds are expected so that the company’s activity does not stop.
It remains to be seen what strategic decisions will be taken to ensure the long-term viability of the company. Remember that Northvolt, like other European battery projects, suffers both from the low demand for electric cars (and therefore for batteries) on the Old Continent but also from Chinese competition and its batteries with less expensive LFP technology, which a growing number of European car manufacturers are studying closely.
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