Swedish battery maker Northvolt says head of Europe’s first homegrown gigafactory to step down

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Employees of the State Archaeological Office person hung pictures of finds from a operation trailer during a main archaeological probe connected the Northvolt site. 

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Sweden's Northvolt connected Wednesday said the caput of its main plant, Europe's archetypal homegrown gigafactory for lithium-ion artillery cells, volition measurement down with contiguous effect.

It comes soon aft the cash-strapped institution announced plans to trim its workforce by astir 25% successful Sweden arsenic portion of a large cost-cutting drive.

Mark Duchesne, CEO of Northvolt Ett, volition beryllium replaced connected an interim ground by Angéline J. Bilodeau, the firm's vice president of operations successful North America, the institution said successful a statement.

The presumption volition beryllium held until the extremity of the twelvemonth arsenic the institution seeks to unafraid a imperishable replacement for CEO of Northvolt Ett, it added.

Based successful Stockholm, Sweden, Northvolt is 1 of Europe's most invaluable privately held tech firms that builds lithium-ion batteries for the electrical conveyance industry. It has partnerships with a fig of large European automakers, including Volkswagen and Volvo.

In an update published Sept. 23, Northvolt said that pursuing archetypal steps taken arsenic portion of a strategical review, the institution had revised its scope of operations successful Sweden "to guarantee that its resources are focused connected accelerating accumulation successful large-scale compartment manufacturing astatine Northvolt Ett."

The strategical enactment required the institution to chopped a full of 1,600 jobs successful Sweden, Northvolt said.

Workers locomotion astatine the tract of the Northvolt Ett mill successful Skelleftea, northbound Sweden connected February 23, 2022.

Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images

Alongside plans to laic disconnected staff, Northvolt said astatine the clip that it would suspend plans for a sizable enlargement of Northvolt Ett, noting the task had been intended to supply an further 30 gigawatt hours of yearly compartment manufacturing capacity.

On Tuesday, a Northvolt Ett subsidiary filed for bankruptcy pursuing the determination to suspend the enlargement task — an update that underscores the group's deepening fiscal struggles.

Separately, Swedish automaker Volvo Cars connected Wednesday announced lawman CEO Björn Annwall volition measurement down from his existent relation arsenic portion of a absorption reshuffle.

The reorganization astatine Volvo Cars comes soon aft the steadfast scrapped its near-term extremity of selling lone electrical vehicles, citing a request to beryllium "pragmatic and flexible" amid changing marketplace conditions and cooling demand.

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