Hundreds of employees at various Swedish locations have to leave the battery manufacturer. Management considers this a tough but unavoidable step.
The struggling battery manufacturer Northvolt has announced the layoff of an estimated 1,600 employees in its Swedish home country. This includes 1,000 jobs at the main plant in Skellefteå, 400 in Västerås and 200 in Stockholm, the company announced. In total, this corresponds to almost a quarter of the entire Northvolt workforce in Sweden.
Even though the overall momentum of electrification remains strong, the right steps must be taken at the right time to counter the headwinds in the automotive market, explained Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson. All energy and investments must now be focused on the core business: A successful ramp-up of large-scale production of battery cells at the Northvolt Ett factory in Skellefteå is crucial for supplying customers and for sustainable business operations. Decisions made today, however difficult they may be, are necessary for Northvolt’s future.
According to the company, Northvolt Ett is the first and only gigafactory for battery cells of a European company to have started production. Production there has tripled since the beginning of the year.
Carlsson had already said in an interview with the Swedish media “Dagens industri” in the summer that Northvolt had been a bit too aggressive with its expansion plans and that these were now being put to the test. A few weeks earlier, car manufacturer BMW had withdrawn an order for battery cells worth two billion euros.
No consequences for Heide
The construction of the Northvolt plant in Heide, Schleswig-Holstein, was not mentioned in the company’s announcement. Heide is not affected by the announcement, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Northvolt plans to build up to one million battery cells for electric cars per year in Heide. The starting signal for construction of the 4.5 billion euro project was given at the end of March by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), among others.
Source: Stern
