Northvolt, the Swedish battery manufacturer is contemplating trimming the workforce as part of cost-cutting measures. The company has already put on hold production of cathode-active material at its Swedish gigafactory, which was launched in 2021, but is struggling to achieve full production. The workforce here is about 3,500-strong. In total, the company has more than 5,000 employees.
The company has also discarded plans to set up a cathode active material (CAM) production facility in Borlange.
These measures are being taken to ensure that the operations remain stable and efficient in the longer run.
While it is reported that the company will endeavour to keep the impact on jobs to the minimum, nothing has been finalised as yet and the precise number of jobs that will be impacted is not known.
Suspending CAM production does mean relying on imports of the same, for without the same, production of lithium batteries can be a challenge.
It is expected that there will be a delay in the launch of its gigafactories in Germany, Canada and South Sweden. The company is trying to focus on the manufacturing of cells, which is its core business.
However, the company is looking to rope in investors for the facility it plans to set up in Poland.
Northvolt is just one of the several lithium-ion battery producers that supply to various European automakers that are now producing electric vehicles that are free of emissions. However, unfortunately for these battery makers, the growth of EV has not happened at the pace that was expected. The demand for EV has not been as expected either. Additionally, there is a lot of competition in the EV space globally.
In India, Servotech Power Systems, which also works in the lithium-ion battery space, has been growing revenue at an extraordinary pace. This can be attributed to the Indian government’s keenness to give a boost to electric mobility via the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-Drive) Scheme.
