Northvolt was a shiny new startup with a pretty logo that promised to “make oil history” by making the cleanest electric car battery the world had ever seen. The Swedish company founded in 2016 was seen as a huge driver for Europe’s dream to become carbon neutral, and would drastically cut the continent’s reliance on China for imported electric car batteries. Some of the largest car-makers out there, including Volvo, Volkswagen and BMW, rushed to place their orders, and investors virtually poured money into the company. Then, Northvolt’s production plan began to fall apart, and people working at its main plant mysteriously started to die.
The enthusiasm was palpable when Northvolt finally opened the doors to its lithium-ion plant in the small Swedish town of Skelleftea, near the Arctic Circle, in 2021. The company, led by Tesla’s former chief products officer Peter Carlsson, was going to do what no one else had previously managed to do: produce “the world’s greenest battery”. It also planned to build battery cells composed of 100 percent recycled nickel, manganese and cobalt.
