Slap to European ambitions: he said failure the company Swedish Northoltwhich represented one of the axes in the EU sleeve in competition with China on electric cars batteries.
The European automotive sector suffers and the crisis, consequently, also affects the suppliers, including Northols: at the basis of bankruptcy the production problems in addition to delays in deliveries and the cancellation Of orders significant like that of 2 billion euros by BMW.
It is aimed at saving part of the production
The Swedish Northvolt had been founded in 2016 with the support of giants such as Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs and Blackrock, accumulating over $ 15 billion in investments.
The announcement of the new bankruptcy instance was issued by the interim president, Tom Johnston. With a debt about 7.5 billion eurosNortholvit asked for protection from creditors first in the United States and then in Sweden. Currently, a judicial liquidator is in charge of selling the company assets, with options that include a total sale or the division of activities.
Despite the bankruptcy, some actors in the sector, such as Scania and the German government, are evaluating possible acquisitions for save there production of batteries for electric cars. Scaniain particular, confirmed the intention to purchase Northolvnt Industrial, ensuring that the production of its electric trucks will not be affected. THE’German executive aims to find investors to save the Northolvit factory in Heide, as stated by the Minister of Economy Robert Habeck
After the bankruptcy procedure in the USA, Northvolt had tried to go on trying to collect 1 billion dollars from 100 potential investors. The sum would have been functional to keep the battery factory open open to Skelleftea, a town in the far north of Sweden. In previous times, Northvolt had tried to open other production plants, without succeeding.
EU Automotive and Chinese competition
The collapse of Northvolt, which comes a few days after the presentation of the Ursula von der Leyen car plan for the relaunch of the electric car in Europe, risks representing a severe stumbling block which, beyond the optimistic forecasts of the last few weeks, could increase dependence on Asian suppliers such as Catl and Byd.
Europe is twice in check: on the one hand it has imposed stories with stories relating to environmental constraints, which benefits the Chinese. On the other hand, he pointed everything about electricity, a relatively immature market for European manufacturers, who are unable to keep up with Chinese giants.
The EU continues on the car top
Northvolt’s bankruptcy declaration is a tile for EU ambitions regarding the relaunch of the automotive, the first manufacturing sector, which represents about the 7% of GDP community, giving Work about 13 million peopledirectly or indirectly.
The EU continues to pursue its ambitious objectives. Compared to the more stringent initial formulation, the Von der Leyen car plan now provides for the possibility of spreading over three years (2025-2027) the period in which to reach binding levels on the enrollments of zero emissions cars, so as not to take immediately the billionaire fines for European car manufacturers.
