It’s a brutal return to reality. Implacable. The Swedish group Northvolt aspired to be the European battery giant. An essential link in the battle for electric vehicles. Of the initial dream, all that remains is piles of debt, nearly 15 billion euros gone up in smoke and a company in near bankruptcy. Founded in Sweden in 2016 by two former Tesla employees, Northvolt was the most advanced in the battery segment. Questionable technological choices, and above all repeated quality problems and extended delivery times, have got the better of the patience of major clients, including BMW which finally threw in the towel this summer. The Swedish government has already announced that it will no longer give a crown to the company.
READ ALSO: From Northvolt to Ynsect, the end of the golden age of European “deep tech”?
This affair is not the umpteenth exit from the road of a slightly too ambitious start-up. It also illustrates the perilous path of European industry to create from scratch a sector that is now strategic. At ACC, the consortium created by Stellantis, TotalEnergies and Mercedes, things are also progressing more slowly than expected. And the trio announced that they had put the gigafactory project in Germany and Italy on hold. Meanwhile, Chinese competitors, loaded with public subsidies, are perfecting their technology in a market, for them, already mature. One question remains: has the battle already been won by Beijing?
