Committed to building battery plant in Quebec
The Swedish manufacturer could push out the ramp-up timelines at its four major sites, chief executive Peter Carlsson said Tuesday.
Northvolt is examining its long-term strategy “both from a capital allocation point of view” as well as working out “realistic time plans for these projects between the customers,” Carlsson said in an interview.
Additional hurdles have also gone up for Northvolt, Europe’s most advanced homegrown battery maker. Long-standing battery rivals in Asia, such as China’s BYD Co., have made strides on improving cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, broadening the types of vehicles they can be used for, undermining Europe’s own battery industry efforts.
Northvolt is also dealing with internal problems in the transition to full-scale production. Customers like Volkswagen AG’s Scania have complained of delivery delays, while BMW AG has backed out of a €2 billion (US$2.1 billion) battery order because of quality concerns, dealing a blow to the region’s efforts to establish an independent EV supply chain.
The manufacturer’s operating loss more than tripled to US$1.03 billion last year, Northvolt said, as the company dealt with “multiple challenges and setbacks” while seeking to scale up output at its Ett battery gigafactory, Carlsson said in a statement.
Revenue slightly advanced to US$128 million last year, up from US$107 million.
Still, Northvolt on Tuesday said it’s targeting 25 per cent market share in Europe by the end of the decade, equivalent to about 150 gigawatt production capacity.
Last month, Bloomberg reported that plans for an initial public offering (IPO) had been pushed to next year because of a challenging market for listings and the operational difficulties in scaling up production. The company is also losing its chairman, veteran industry leader Jim Hageman Snabe, at a critical time.
Snabe, who also chairs Siemens AG, won’t return after six months of sick leave. The Dane had been picked for the position in 2022, in an effort to build a more independent board with an industrial track record ahead of a potential IPO. Existing board member Tom Johnstone is taking over.