Swedish battery developer Northvolt is to scale back its ambitions as part of its strategic review. Reflecting a challenging macroeconomic environment the company will focus on a nearer timeline and a “resizing” of its workforce.

Peter Carlsson, CEO of Northvolt, commented: “With the strategic review now underway, we are having to take some tough actions for the purpose of securing the foundations of Northvolt’s operations to improve our financial stability and strengthen our operational performance.”

As part of the strategic review, the Northvolt Board agreed to place operations at Northvolt Ett Upstream 1 cathode active material production facility into care and maintenance until further notice. The Northvolt Fem programme on the Kvarnsveden site will be terminated. The site was acquired by Northvolt in 2022 and was envisioned as a new facility for cathode active material production. Northvolt has concluded an agreement for the sale of the site.

In addition, in Gdańsk, Poland, Northvolt Systems, including Northvolt Dwa, Europe’s largest battery systems production facility will enter into discussions with potential future partners and investors, and in California, Northvolt has already communicated its intention to integrate its subsidiary Cuberg and lithium metal technology into Northvolt Labs, Sweden.

No final decisions have been made on the precise nature of any staff “resizing” and Northvolt is in discussions with unions to minimise the need for redundancies.

In line with its focus on large-scale cell manufacturing, Northvolt remains committed to NOVO (Sweden), Northvolt Drei (Germany), and Northvolt Six (Canada).

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