Heavy snow blends into white thick clouds in Skellefteå, a riverside city in northern Sweden that is home to 78,000 residents.
It’s also the location of what was supposed to become Europe’s biggest and greenest electric battery factory, powered by the region’s abundance of renewable energy.
Swedish start-up Northvolt opened its flagship production plant here in 2022, after signing multi-billion euro contracts with carmakers including BMV, Volkswagen and Nordic truck manufacturer Scania.
But it ran into major financial troubles last year, reporting debts of $5.8bn (£4.6bn) in November, and filing for bankruptcy in the US, where it had been hoping to expand its operations.
Since September, it’s laid off around a quarter of its global workforce, including more than 1,000 staff in Skellefteå.
“A lot of people have moved out already,” says 43-year-old Ghanaian Justice Dey-Seshie, who relocated to Skellefteå for a job at Northvolt, after previously studying and working in southern Sweden.
“I need to secure a job in order to extend my work permit. Otherwise, I have to exit the country, sadly.”
Many researchers and journalists tracking Northvolt’s downfall share the view that it was at least partly caused by a global dip in demand for electric vehicles (EVs).
In September, Volvo abandoned its target to produce only EVs by 2030, arguing that “customers and markets are moving at different speeds.” Meanwhile China, the market leader in electric batteries, has been able to undercut Northvolt’s prices.
Missing production targets (a key factor in BMW pulling out of a €2bn deal in June), expanding too quickly, and the company’s leadership have also been widely cited as factors fuelling the crisis.
“To build batteries is a very complex process. It takes a lot of capital, it takes time, and they obviously just didn’t have the right personnel running the company,” argues Andreas Cervenka, a business author and economics commentator for Swedish daily Aftonbladet.
At Umeå university, Madeleine Eriksson, a geographer researching the impact of so-called “green industries” says Northvolt presented a “save the world mentality” that impressed investors, media and local politicians.
But this “now-or-never” approach, she argues, glossed over the fact it was a risk-taking start-up that “never finished attracting investment.”
Northvolt did not respond to multiple requests from the BBC to respond to comments about its downfall or future plans.
The firm has hired German Marcus Dangelmaier, from global electronics company TE Connectivity to run Northvolt’s operations in Skellefeå, from January, as it seeks to attract fresh investment.
Northvolt’s co-founder and CEO, Peter Carlsson – a former Tesla executive – resigned in November.
Many researchers and journalists tracking Northvolt’s downfall share the view that it was at least partly caused by a global dip in demand for electric vehicles (EVs).
In September, Volvo abandoned its target to produce only EVs by 2030, arguing that “customers and markets are moving at different speeds.” Meanwhile China, the market leader in electric batteries, has been able to undercut Northvolt’s prices.
Missing production targets (a key factor in BMW pulling out of a €2bn deal in June), expanding too quickly, and the company’s leadership have also been widely cited as factors fuelling the crisis.
“To build batteries is a very complex process. It takes a lot of capital, it takes time, and they obviously just didn’t have the right personnel running the company,” argues Andreas Cervenka, a business author and economics commentator for Swedish daily Aftonbladet.
At Umeå university, Madeleine Eriksson, a geographer researching the impact of so-called “green industries” says Northvolt presented a “save the world mentality” that impressed investors, media and local politicians.
But this “now-or-never” approach, she argues, glossed over the fact it was a risk-taking start-up that “never finished attracting investment.”
Northvolt did not respond to multiple requests from the BBC to respond to comments about its downfall or future plans.
The firm has hired German Marcus Dangelmaier, from global electronics company TE Connectivity to run Northvolt’s operations in Skellefeå, from January, as it seeks to attract fresh investment.
Northvolt’s co-founder and CEO Peter Carlsson – a former Tesla executive – resigned in November.