“We're spending more, but it's not a significant deviation from our plan, despite external challenges,” says Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson about the economy in an interview with the Dagens industri newspaper.
Northvolt Group's third-quarter figures, sent to financiers and investors, have been partially reviewed by the business newspaper Di.
According to Di, Northvolt has so far delivered battery cells equivalent to 79.8 MWh in the first nine months of the year, which is about half a percent of the eventual production target for the first two production blocks of 16 GWh.
When CEO and founder Peter Carlsson met with Norran in early October, he talked about production:
– It's incredibly intense. Now there are a lot of customer deliveries and a lot of things to scale up. We're a little behind plan in terms of production, but I see Mark (Duchesne, CEO of Northvolt Ett) and the team solving problem after problem. It was never in the plan for us to do massive volumes this year, but next year we have to ramp up to almost half the capacity here.
Where do you want to be in 2025?
– The whole 16 GWh should be fully operational by then, with a little flexibility. We need to get the lines up to the ppm level, parts per minute, that is required. We've taken steps, but we're not there line by line. It's fine-tuning, fine-tuning, and more fine-tuning, Carlsson said.
Production at Northvolt Ett in the third quarter was significantly lower than the average production during the first two quarters of the year.
According to Di, battery cell shipments in the third quarter were 13 MWh, compared to an average of 33.5 MWh per quarter in the first half of 2023. Production in the fourth quarter will be affected by the accident on November 5, in which a 25-year-old man died. Production was stopped after the accident. Now Northvolt Ett is back in operation, but Carlsson says the "ramp-up" will not be visible until 2024.
– Now we see step-by-step improvements that give me confidence that in 2024 we will meet our customers' needs in scaling up, he said in the interview.
The loss for the group, which includes all units, was just under 11 billion kronor in the first nine months of the year, compared with -1.3 billion kronor last year.
Northvolt's CEO Peter Carlsson tells Dagens Industri that the company is in the process of raising more funds. In addition to existing financiers, new investors may also be joining the company.
– We are spending more, but it's not a significant deviation from our plan, despite the external challenges. Most of the capital is used for investments, and we had also earmarked quite a bit for the start-up in Skellefteå. But of course, we are checking our costs and tightening our belt to make sure we don't get into a liquidity trap, says Carlsson in the interview with Dagens Industri.
He also reveals that Northvolt is in the process of raising more money and that in addition to existing financiers, new investors are joining the company.
– I feel continued strong support from our investors, and we also have new investors who are now investing. It's also not the case that our customer base has decreased during the year, it continues to grow, says Carlsson in the interview.
The most recent round of financing took place in August this year when Northvolt raised the equivalent of 13 billion kronor through a convertible bond.
Note: Norran asked Northvolt's CEO Peter Carlsson for an interview, but he was not available.