Northvolt was fueled by $ 15 billion for financing and should be Europe's success story – a local champion that can compete with Asian and American giants.
So when Northvolt registered bankruptcy last week after months of months of months Job cuts, restructuring and several failed attempts to collect more money, it gave the ambitions of Europe a massive blow to increase the domestic production of lithium-ion batteries that lead everything from EVS to smartphones.
According to Northvolt's steep fall of mercy, all of politicians and investors to their own employees of the company expressed their opinion about what went wrong. Her explanations include hard competition, extremely expensesAllegations of mismanagementAnd lack of state support.
Northvolt may be bankrupt, but the fight for a strong European ecosystem is far from over. This is the consensus of several tech investors and startups that we have spoken to in the past few weeks.
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Creation of a sustainable and competitive battery value chain in Europehowever, will be littered with challenges. One of them – competition from the east – can be insurmountable.
The continent faces two clear options: cooperation with the industry giants Asia or build a stronghold at the next border of the battery technology.
China threatens great
Northvolt was in sight to conquer 25% of the European battery market by 2030 in the hope of taking care of Chinese and South Korean companies. Together these two nations delivered Europe with 90% of its batteries last year.
While Northvolt stalled – no achievement of his goals and the loss of important customers – Chinese batteries closed one deal after the other with European car manufacturers. Remarkable among them were Gotion's partnership with Volkswagen and Catls Joint Venture with Stellantis to build a Lithium battery factory of EUR 4.1 billion in Spain.
Asian battery manufacturers have also expanded their reach in European startups. In 2023, Gothion acquired 25% of Slovakia in Inobat. The startup of the battery has been collected to USD $ 400 million to date, with Gothion being a great supporter.
“While Gothion and Inobat are pursuing very different strategies and are completely independent, Inobat has benefited from Gothion's many years of success, experience and know-how to avoid fatal mistakes”, CEO and co-founder of Inobat ” Marian Bocek tells TNW.
Gothion and inobat have formed a joint venture to build a lithium-ion battery system of € 1.2 billion in Slovakia, which were intended for completion in 2027. The batteries are intended for EVS and electric aircraft.
Inobat builds a smaller giga factor in Slovakia to produce batteries for high-performance electric vehicles. The tests for European car manufacturers, including Ferrari.
The British solid battery company Ilika is another European hopeful that uses China's battery superiority. Graeme Purdy, TThe company's CEO named a lack of “Asian partnerships” as a potential reason for the downfall of Northvolt. “Global cooperation offers the strongest way to commercial success, ”he says TNW.
Ilika sends its first pattern to 17 car manufacturers this year, the company said. Instead of building a gigafactory, the outfit, based in Great Britain, plans to licens its technology for other companies. Ilika has a long -standing research partnership with the Japanese automotive giant Toyota.
For European startups, the attraction of the partnership with East Asian battery makers is obvious. You have the efficiency of the technology, scaling and supply chain that is missing in Europe.
However, this trust is associated with risks.
Opportunities and threats
The dependence on Chinese companies has triggered several concerns. Trade Disputes, geopolitical tensions or sudden export restrictions could bring battery supply chains to chaos or even cancel existing agreements so that European companies are looking for alternatives.
Tom Johnstone, a preliminary chairman of Northvolt, has asked European politicians to invest strongly in local battery startups instead. “There are costs to pay for it, but there can be larger costs so as not to pay” Finance times. He hopes Europe the foundation “use” that Northvolt had provided to set up its own competitive battery industry.
A Northvolt Gigafactory in Sweden's icy north made Europe's first lithium-ion battery in Germany in 2021. Credit: Northvolt
Northvolt's business in Sweden is now for sale. Volkswagen, Scania and Volvo are all potential buyers while some others Experts believe A Chinese company will acquire business.
In both cases, Danijel Višević, partner and co-founder of the largest Climate Tech VC in Europe, World Fund, is of the opinion that European startups should draw their attention to promoting the next generation of the next generation from the next generation.
“When it comes to Lithium iron -phosphate (LFP) batteriesChina won, “he says.
Recharge the Europe's battery sector
Louis Fearn, director at Inmotion Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover's investment arm, argues that Europe should change its strategy. “The way forward for Europe will be not to concentrate on the challenge of China, but on securing raw materials of domestic substances and researching border technologies.”
Europe's aspiring battery player could do good to bet on the next border of the battery technology where the field is still open.
Kevin Brundish, CEO of the Dutch Batteryer Lionvolt, agrees. He is firmly convinced that Europe's know-how in the next generation of the next generation of “keeps the dream of the sovereignty of the battery under control”.
“Our robust ecosystem of startups and scale-ups is already pioneering breakthrough technologies in silicon and lithium-metal anode innovations that are essential for the next generation high-performance batteries,” Brundish told TNW.
LionVolt turned from the Holst Center from Tno to Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in 2020. The startup works on a 3D Lithium metal anode This improves energy transmission in lithium ions, sodium ions and in the future in the solid-state batteries.
LionVolt is an up -and -coming cohort of startups that want to disturb the status quo of the battery creation. Leydenjar, also from Eindhoven, makes Silicon anodes This can save up to 10 times more energy than conventional graphite tanes used in lithium-ion batteries.
Spinoff Molyon at Cambridge University has developed A Lithium-sulfur battery The It claims that the double energy density of lithium ions is twice as high. Swedens Energy builds a factory that power Zinc-ion batteries For energy storage, which is not based on lithium supply. Carbonx in the Netherlands develops alternative anode material China checked Graphite.
While most of these startups focus on sub -components, there can also be a place for larger players.
A way to battery independence
France's call was probably the only European candidate to Northvolt. Supported by Renault, Verbor has secured 3 billion € for a 16 -GWH gigafactory in Dunkirk, set To Produce batteries for 300,000 EVs annually when they are completed at 2028.
“Europe can build an end-to-end value chain for batteries; in fact Batteries are important components of both climate and defense technologies that depend on our sovereignty“, Says Višević.
For this, Europe has to invest, otherwise its battery ambitions could reach Northvolt. This requires risk capital, but also considerable public financing.
Inobat's Bocek says that Europe has to give car manufacturers an incentive to buy local batteries, just like with feed-in tariffs for renewable energies a decade ago. “Financial support and fast approval is essential,” he says.
Northvolt's case is a warning story, but not the end of the street. If Europe wants the sovereignty of the battery, it has to act decisively and pour money goods where they are most urgently needed. While foreign powers like China will undoubtedly be part of Europe's battery carriage for a while, the smartest step for Europe may not be to catch up, but to carve its own niche.
The technological sovereignty of Europe will be a hot topic at the TNW conference, which takes place in Amsterdam from June 19 to 20. Tickets for the event are now on sale. Use the Code TnwxMedia2025 on the check-out to get a 30% discount on the price.
