Northvolt axes 1600 jobs as EV slowdown bites

Expansion of the company’s Northvolt Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, has been suspended, with 1,000 jobs set to be lost at the site. Northvolt Labs, the firm’s R&D centre in Västerås, will see 400 jobs go, while 200 corporate positions in Stockholm will also be cut.

The job losses mark a 20 per cent reduction in Northvolt’s total workforce and come as a significant blow to Europe’s EV ambitions, with Northvolt long heralded as the continent’s leading response to China’s EV battery dominance. In a statement, Peter Carlsson, Northvolt’s co-founder and CEO, pointed to a struggling automotive market and challenges across the wider business environment. Warning signs for the company were present from June, when BMW cancelled a €2bn contract for battery cells that Northvolt reportedly could not deliver on time. 

“While overall momentum for electrification remains strong, we need to make sure that we take the right actions at the right time in response to headwinds in the automotive market, and wider industrial climate,” he said.