Published in Svenska Dagbladet, 2024-11-22. Translated from Swedish.
The suit sold the dream. The excavator was supposed to do the work. But the visions and the reality never pulled in the same direction at Northvolt. What Peter Carlsson leaves behind is not what he had imagined.
It is a bright spring day in April 2018. A large yellow excavator stands at Finnslätten in Västerås. The first sod for Northvolt’s demonstration factory is a scoop of gravel. Standing next to the machine is a tall man wearing clothes more usually associated with a different kind of work: a white shirt and a dark suit. Peter Carlsson, Northvolt’s CEO, is pleased to have arrived here after eighteen months of preparation. In a year’s time, the plan is for Northvolt to begin producing its first batteries. “It’s an enormous opportunity for Sweden,” he says. It would not quite work out as he imagined — not for him, not for Northvolt, and not for Sweden.
The project actually begins much earlier, on the other side of the Atlantic. In 2013 Peter Carlsson was head of the supply chain at Tesla. He could see how the need for batteries would grow dramatically as the automotive industry electrified. The geopolitical tensions between East and West existed even then, though they would intensify considerably over the coming decade. The insight about battery demand was not unique. What was unusual was the approach Carlsson absorbed from his then-boss, Elon Musk. Tesla did not have factories — it had “gigafactories.” Today Tesla is not a car company but an AI and robotics company, if you were to ask Musk. He is a master at projecting vast visions over the more mundane reality of what is actually happening in the business day to day.
Back in Sweden, Peter Carlsson executed a manoeuvre his former boss would have been proud of. He painted the picture of a Sweden that would get its first home-grown gigafactory producing batteries. But doing so required financing in the multi-billion bracket. Carlsson’s vision engaged prospective customers like Volkswagen as well as funds and venture capitalists. Everyone was invited along for the ride. It became Europe’s most richly funded startup.
This is roughly where reality started to chafe. Building battery factories is complex. Building several simultaneously — in different countries, as Northvolt did — is harder still. The factories are hit by serious delays and complications. Meanwhile the company needs continued financing to keep operating. It becomes a juggling act between sorting out something as concrete as machinery on a factory floor, and convincing financiers that this is a journey they need to be part of — delays notwithstanding. At the same time, the global environment deteriorates. Inflation takes hold and interest rates surge. Optimism about the future takes a knock. But the money must come in and the factories must start working. The equation eventually becomes too difficult. On Thursday Northvolt announces it is filing for reorganisation in the United States — a so-called Chapter 11 process. On Friday, Peter Carlsson steps down as CEO.
It is impossible not to think back to the excavator and the pile of gravel from 2018. The suit sold the dream. The excavator was supposed to do the work. But the two never quite pulled together. Northvolt is a project that arouses strong feelings. On one side are critics who see it as a failure and a sign of a “green bubble” — an industrial project that was misconceived from the start and should never have been built. On the other side are those who see the value in the vision. Sweden and Europe need entrepreneurship and major ventures of this kind to manage the green transition and build greater independence from China. Risk is part of the price you pay for achieving something never done before.
The tension between vision and reality has characterised Northvolt from the very beginning — and in this case two things can be true simultaneously. What Peter Carlsson has demonstrated is that it is possible to mobilise industry, society and business to create something Sweden has never seen before. That is an achievement of real significance. At the same time, reality has consistently lagged behind, with years of delays and billions in additional costs as a consequence. The execution has not worked. What remains after the reorganisation will be a different kind of company, with different owners and new leadership. For Peter Carlsson the story ends here, as he steps down as CEO and becomes a senior adviser and board member after many years of hard work. For Northvolt, the next chapter remains to be written — but that will be someone else’s task.
