Europe’s battery strategy is disintegrating, a prime exhibit of hubris and inflated rhetoric.
Its flagship Northvolt gigafactory in northern Sweden has run out of money and is talking solemnly to creditors. The Swedish press reports that it may seek bankruptcy protection within days.
More than half of the EU’s big battery projects face delay or cancellation. Europe still relies almost entirely on China, Korea and Japan for cathode and anode material, electrolytes and polyolefin separators, the real value in the lithium-ion supply chain.
