The dramatic rise and fall of Northvolt, Europe’s one-time battery champion, has many of the elements of a Nordic noir thriller.
A desire for global domination, intense hubris and disagreements, vast amounts of cash and several unexplained deaths: the Swedish start-up has had it all on its journey to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday.
Founded in 2016 with the promise of loosening the stranglehold of Asian companies on battery manufacturing, Northvolt became the symbol first of Europe’s ambitions, and then its failings to find a place in the green transition against the massive subsidies of China and President Joe Biden’s US.