Worked with Elon Musk at Tesla before heading up Swedish EV battery maker
Carlsson, a co-founder of Northvolt, has led the electric-vehicle supplier since its inception in 2016. He raised billions of dollars in debt and equity with a promise to be a pioneer in European battery production.
The plan unravelled after a string of operational setbacks hobbled its finances. On Thursday, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States after a desperate bid to secure rescue funding fell short, leaving the struggling battery maker with just one week’s cash in its accounts.
Carlsson, 54, said it was time for new leaders to step in. He will remain a board member and senior advisor, the company said.
Northvolt “is like a baby for me,” he said at a press conference on Friday. He said he’ll support it “in any capacity that I can but also handing over to a very competent leadership team.”
Under Carlsson, Northvolt spent freely and expanded rapidly to create the scale he saw as necessary to compete with established battery cell manufacturers in China and Korea. It built its main plant in Skelleftea, Sweden, near the Arctic Circle and established outposts in Germany, the U.S., and Canada.
The company, once a candidate for an initial public offering valued at US$20 billion, received about US$10 billion in debt and equity funding.
But it found itself in a fast-moving liquidity crisis in the autumn, after it failed to ramp up production at its main factory. Slowing growth for electric vehicle demand led customers to recalibrate the need for batteries.
In its filing on Thursday, the company said its cash had dwindled to about US$30 million — enough for one week of operations — while debt topped US$5.8 billion.
Battery evangelist
His popularity and visibility in the media plunged over the past year, following a series of reports on the company’s struggles to set up functioning production and stop the financial bleeding. The company recently replaced the boss of its main plant and shelved an expansion there, putting the unit overseeing the project into bankruptcy.
Among the company’s major challenges to pull off a successful restructuring is to find a financial or strategic partner.
“I should have probably pulled the brake earlier on some of the expansion paths in order to make sure that the core engine was moving according to plan,” Carlsson said.