Two former Tesla executives are intending to establish what they describe as “Europe’s first big battery factory” in a bid to compete with Asian manufacturers that dominate the industry, as the fight to expand the electric-car sector intensifies.
Peter Carlsson, who was California-based Tesla’s supply-chain head until 2015, announced plans on 7 March to set up a $4 billion factory in Scandinavia, using metals mined in the region.
He told the
Financial Times: “If nobody does anything, Europe is going to be completely dependent on an Asian supply chain. It’s now or never.”
Northvolt (
www.northvolt.com), the company founded by Mr Carlsson, is looking to start producing lithium-ion batteries by 2020. Paolo Cerruti, the company’s chief operating officer (and another former Tesla executive), said that Asian companies have “no structural advantage, their dominance largely coming through their historical strength in consumer electronics. It’s an automated process; you don’t need cheap labour, but you do need skilled engineers.”
Mr Carlsson cited “very interesting raw-material assets in the Nordic region” and said: “Northvolt hopes to be vertically integrated, to make the supply chain a competitive advantage for us.”
He suggested that the company (formerly known as SGF Energy) is interested in a Finnish mine producing cobalt and nickel — and in one of the world’s largest cobalt refineries, which is also located in Finland.