Swedish Northvolt Pulls Plug On E-Car Plant…But Germans Keep Denying E-Car Reality

This drama about the battery factory has entered the next round. NDR German public broadcasting reports on the closure of the main plant in Sweden.

There is more bad news from battery manufacturer Northvolt: The insolvency administrator has announced that battery cell production in Skellefteå in northern Sweden, Northvolt’s main plant, is to be shut down. It is to be completely shut down by 30 June – if no buyer can be found by then. This means that the company will completely cease production in its home country. However, the search for a new investor is still ongoing, according to reports. There are also potential buyers for the various business areas within the Northvolt Group. ‘The talks and negotiations are ongoing and are at various stages,’ said insolvency administrator Mikael Kubu in the press release.”

In Germany, the conservative-green coalition state government in Schleswig-Holstein remains surprisingly still optimistic about the planned plant in Heide. Perhaps it has to be, given the sums that the state and federal government have guaranteed and already paid.

According to a spokesperson for the German Northvolt subsidiary, the events in Sweden have no impact on the planned site in Heide (Dithmarschen district). Northvolt Germany is formally independent of Northvolt AB in Sweden and is therefore not affected by the insolvency proceedings for the time being. The search for investors is continuing, according to the spokesperson. There is great interest in the site near Heide. Insolvency administrator Mikael Kubu in Sweden had not yet commented specifically on the German subsidiary.

Despite the insolvency of the Swedish parent company, construction is continuing at Heide. Currently, the focus is more on the infrastructure on the construction site.

Despite the bad news from Sweden, many members of parliament from Schleswig-Holstein still see the opportunity for the site in Dithmarschen. ‘There will be an investor, I am very confident about that,’ said Lasse Petersdotter (Green Party) to NDR Schleswig-Holstein. Lukas Kilian (CDU conservatives) spoke of Northvolt’s ‘silverware’. ‘If you can sell something, then you have to look at this location and develop it further,’ he said. ‘We have the green electricity, we have the good connections, we have the experts there.’

Kianusch Stender (SPD socialists) expressed a similar view: ‘Over 100 hectares of levelled building land with planning permission already in place. We have virtually everything we need. This is a prime piece of land for any investor.’ Bernd Buchholz (FDP free democrats) was somewhat less euphoric: ‘The chance for Heide really only lies in a strategic investor who is able to operate a battery cell production facility themselves.’

Economics Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen is also in favour of Heide: ‘There are reports that say we need up to 30 production sites in Europe. And we naturally want to ensure that one of them is in Schleswig-Holstein,’ he said.”

How is all this supposed to work? Where has the money gone? How well was it checked in advance?
Northvolt has practically no production and no more customers.