NORTHVOLT

Peter Carlsson was Tesla's former VP of Supply Chain. He saw firsthand how dependent the global auto industry was on Asian battery manufacturers — primarily Chinese and South Korean.

In 2016, he founded Northvolt with the pitch: Europe needs its own battery champion, or European automakers will forever depend on Asian suppliers. The timing seemed perfect — the EU was pushing for green energy independence, automakers were committing to all-electric futures, and billions in public subsidies were available.

The pitch attracted the most impressive investor lineup in European startup history.

Northvolt manufactured lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles and energy storage. The business model was straightforward: build gigafactories in Europe, produce batteries at scale, sell to European automakers who desperately needed a non-Chinese supply chain.

Revenue came from battery cell sales under long-term supply agreements — Northvolt had over $55 billion in contracted orders from BMW, Volkswagen, Scania, and others. They also planned to recycle old batteries to recover critical minerals.

Northvolt Ett (gigafactory in Skellefteå, Sweden), lithium-ion battery cells for EVs, energy storage systems, Revolt (battery recycling program). Production capacity targets were never fully achieved before bankruptcy.

Northvolt's strategy was to build multiple gigafactories across Europe — Sweden (Skellefteå), Germany (Schleswig-Holstein), Canada (Quebec), and potentially Poland. They secured long-term supply contracts worth over $55 billion before producing at meaningful scale.

The recycling initiative (Revolt) was designed to create a circular battery economy. Unfortunately, the strategy required flawless execution of the hardest manufacturing challenge in the world — and execution was exactly what went wrong.

Everything. Northvolt struggled with every aspect of battery manufacturing: production yields were far below targets, quality issues led BMW to cancel a $2 billion order, the Skellefteå factory in northern Sweden was plagued by equipment problems, and hiring skilled workers to move to a remote Arctic location was nearly impossible.

The company burned through cash at a staggering rate — over $1 billion per year in losses. Despite $15 billion in total funding, it wasn't enough.

Northvolt filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2024.

Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs, BMW, Volvo, IKEA Foundation, Baillie Gifford, Spotify founder Daniel Ek, ATP (Danish pension fund), Canada Pension Plan, European Investment Bank