Northvolt cuts nearly 3,000 jobs in Sweden

When the battery maker filed for bankruptcy in Sweden earlier this month, it had around 5,000 employees. Now, it will employ only about 1,700 people, according to Mikael Kubu, Northvolt’s bankruptcy trustee. “Despite major cutbacks, it is positive that the business can continue to some extent, which is probably crucial for being able to sell the business in whole or in part,” Kubu said.

Kubu says the “principal agreement with the relevant stakeholders regarding financial guarantees to conduct the continued operations” will be finalised in the coming days. Nevertheless, this is the latest blow to the ailing battery maker.

As mentioned above, parent company Northvolt AB – along with subsidiaries Northvolt Ett AB, Northvolt Labs AB, Northvolt Revolt AB and Northvolt Systems AB – filed for bankruptcy in Sweden on 12 March. It was said that the company would not be liquidated. However, Kubu was appointed as trustee by the Swedish courts and put in charge of selling the company and its assets, as well as settling outstanding liabilities.

This was already the second bankruptcy filing for Northvolt.  In November 2024, the company then filed for bankruptcy protection under US insolvency law and CEO Peter Carlsson resigned, but this did not bring the hoped-for breakthrough either.

Northvolt ran into increasing financial difficulties last year. On the one hand, the company faced “significant internal challenges in its ramp-up of production [at the Northvolt Ett factory], both in ways that were expected by engagement in what is a highly complex industry, and others which were unforeseen,” the company said a few weeks ago.

Almost two years after the start of production, the factory has still not produced the expected quantities, leading to a shortfall in planned sales and the cancellation of a billion-euro order by shareholder BMW over the summer. The situation became increasingly explosive as further financing proved more difficult due to the global situation and investors (partly due to their own problems) were no longer willing to inject more money. Northvolt subsequently abandoned its aggressive expansion strategy and sold off some of its subsidiaries. In February, Northvolt sold its module production to its customer Scania.

It remains to be seen how (or if) Northvolt Germany, the company responsible for building the Northvolt Drei battery factory in Heide, Schleswig-Holstein, and Northvolt North America (responsible for building the Northvolt Six factory in Canada), will be affected. Neither are part of either insolvency filing.

svt.se (in Swedish), reuters.com, bloomberg.com