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US battery start-up Lyten is buying Northvolt’s key assets out of bankruptcy and aims to revive the failed Swedish battery group’s gigafactory and research laboratory as well as plans for its German and Canadian expansion.
The Californian start-up, whose investors include the likes of Stellantis, FedEx, Honeywell and McKinsey, is aiming to make batteries for a much broader range of industries than just electric vehicles in an attempt to avoid some of the pitfalls that befell Europe’s big hope for taking on Chinese EV battery makers.
Lyten is acquiring Northvolt’s sub-Arctic battery factory in Skellefteå, its R&D facility in Västerås and its planned facility in Heide, Germany, at a “deeply discounted” but undisclosed price, chief executive Dan Cook told the Financial Times.
“It is incredibly important from a national security standpoint, from an energy security standpoint . . . to have local supply chains and local manufacturing. We feel very comfortable that we’ve got customer support both in the US and in Europe,” he added.
Mikael Kubu, Northvolt’s bankruptcy trustee, said that the deal still needed approval from governments and authorities in Sweden and Germany.
“It has been a rollercoaster. It’s extremely costly just to maintain these huge facilities, meaning that we were in a hurry to sell it. We have been able to work very, very fast,” he told the FT.
Northvolt’s collapse into bankruptcy in March marked the end of a Swedish start-up that raised more capital than any other private company in Europe from the likes of Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs.
The company’s failure came amid struggles to produce enough batteries at its Skellefteå plant due to a number of problems such as mismanagement and issues with Chinese machinery. It also lost focus by planning new factories in Germany and Canada along with an energy storage facility in Poland.
Lyten bought the energy storage factory in July when it also announced a $200mn equity fundraising to back its acquisition strategy.
The US start-up specialises in lithium-sulphur batteries — rather than the more common lithium-ion technology that Northvolt and others employed. Lyten argues lithium-sulphur batteries are cheaper to produce and have a higher energy density.
Cook said Lyten was still developing its plans for the Northvolt assets, which it hoped to acquire during the fourth quarter. The start-up is looking to rehire many of the Swedish group’s workers and executives and strike deals with its former customers, which included Audi, Porsche and truckmaker Scania.
Lyten intends to produce lithium-sulphur cells for industries such as drones and data centres in Skellefteå, but is also seeking to carry on manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for EVs using Northvolt’s technology.
The US group is in talks with Canadian authorities about continuing Northvolt’s plans to build a battery factory in Quebec.
Cook argued that until Northvolt was forced to shut its Swedish operations in July by the bankruptcy trustee, its new management had “for the most part solved their issues”, including boosting their production yield to a level that should be profitable.
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