Northvolt announces 1,600 redundancies in Sweden

The European battery maker has made the move as part of a strategic review which will focus on getting its first 16 GWh of production capacity running at its Northvolt Ett site.
As Northvolt's troubles have indicated, setting up a non-Chinese lithium-ion battery supply chain poses challenges. | Image: Northvolt

Embattled Swedish battery maker Northvolt has announced it will axe 1,600 jobs in its homeland as part of a strategic review of its operations in the face of economic “headwinds.”

The European battery maker – backed by auto giant Volkswagen, electronics brand Siemens, and global investors Goldman Sachs and BlackRock – said it will make 1,000 workers redundant in Skellefteå after suspending plans to build a second cell production fab in the northern Swedish city.

The affected Skellefteå site was set to have an annual production capacity of 30 GWh.

Northvolt is also narrowing the scope of work at its innovation and product development site in Västerås, where “programs and expansion will be slowed,” the company said in a press release. Northvolt said “fundamental platforms … will be maintained” at the site but the Västerås facility will see 400 redundancies.

Core business

The company said it intended to focus its efforts on ramping up to a planned 16 GWh annual production capacity at its main Northvolt Ett cell factory in Skellefteå, “to prioritize commitments to its current automotive customers.”

The scaling back of operations in Skellefteå and Västerås will see the company also require 200 redundancies from its corporate support program staff in Stockholm.

Northvolt said all redundancies would be subject to negotiations with unions and added it was offering support to those affected.

The manufacturer said an “acceleration program” brought in to speed up manufacturing capacity ramp up at Northvolt Ett had seen production output rise threefold since the start of 2024.

Previous cutbacks

Earlier in September 2024, the battery company had announced the sale of a site it had intended to turn into a cathode active material (CAM) factory, in Kvarnsveden, in Borlange, central Sweden.

Heralding the start of the strategic review which has driven the redundancy announcement, Northvolt said it was seeking investors or partners for its battery module and pack assembly site in Gdańsk, Poland, and had paused plans for a separate CAM production at Northvolt Ett.

Earlier this year, the company secured loans worth $5 billion to expand cell production capacity at Northvolt Ett to 60 GWh/year and to construct a recycling facility. That credit line may now be put to use to finance redundancies and get the initial 16 GWh fully operational.

Northvolt had previously decided to close California-based subsidiary Cuberg and move that unit’s operations to Sweden.

ESS News reported Northvolt had a workforce of around 7,000 people earlier in September 2024.

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