Northvolt, the Swedish automotive battery maker that filed for bankruptcy in March, will shut down its remaining battery cell production in Sweden by the end of June, the company’s bankruptcy trustee said on Thursday.
Mikael Kubu, the court-appointed trustee overseeing the case, said in a statement that battery cell manufacturing at Northvolt Ett, the company’s flagship facility in Skellefteå, will be wound down due to the lack of a viable buyer willing to take over operations in the near term.
“A gradual wind-down of battery cell production in Northvolt Ett will be initiated, with the objective of ceasing production by 30 June,” Kubu stated.
Northvolt’s collapse on March 12 marked one of Sweden’s largest corporate failures and dealt a significant blow to Europe’s ambitions of building a competitive electric vehicle (EV) battery industry to rival China’s dominance. The company had been viewed as the continent’s best hope to establish a large-scale, homegrown battery supplier for EVs.
While some parties have expressed interest in various business segments of the Northvolt group, negotiations are still ongoing and at differing stages of development, according to the trustee. The company has not disclosed whether any of these talks involve reviving production at the Skellefteå facility.
Following its bankruptcy filing, Northvolt said it would continue limited operations at its northern Sweden plant with the help of financial guarantees from stakeholders. However, these efforts have not yielded a sustainable path forward.
The company previously sought Chapter 11 protection in the United States in November as its liquidity crisis deepened, but it ultimately failed to raise the funds needed to continue operations.
