Swedish battery company Northvolt said Tuesday that it will close a lithium-metal battery research and development facility in California and move all development operations to its R&D center in Vasteras, Sweden.
Northvolt has done some development work on lithium-metal battery technology—an alternative to today’s prevailing lithium-ion chemistry—through Cuberg, a wholly owned subsidiary in the San Francisco Bay Area that the company acquired in 2021.
Drawing of Northvolt Six battery manufacturing plant in Quebec, Canada
In what the company calls a “strategic move,” Northvolt plans to move its lithium metal development work to Sweden, where it will continue alongside other battery chemistry research projects, including lithium-ion and sodium-ioN.
“By focusing our efforts, we are well positioned to deliver next-generation energy solutions to meet the growing needs of the global market,” Northvolt chief development officer Sami Haikala said in a statement.
Artistic rendering of planned Volvo and Northvolt battery plant in Gothenburg, Sweden
Northvolt in June lost BMW battery contract valued at around $2 billion, after reportedly failing to deliver batteries on time. The contract states that Northvolt will begin producing batteries for BMW this year. The company also announced joint venture battery factory with Volvo in 2022, is expected to produce batteries for the upcoming all-electric version of the Volvo XC60 SUV. That plant is expected to open in 2025 and aims to produce enough batteries to power 500,000 electric vehicles a year.
Northvolt currently makes batteries exclusively in Europe, but in 2023 announced Canada’s $5.2 billion EV battery plantis scheduled to open in 2026. The plant’s Canadian location meets one of the conditions for receiving a reformed federal EV tax credit under new rules enacted by the Biden administration.
