Lyten, a US-based battery start-up backed by Stellantis, has agreed to acquire the remaining assets of the collapsed Swedish battery maker Northvolt. The company stated that it aims to continue the plans already in place by previous management.
The buy-in restores Europe’s faltering ambitions of building a homegrown battery industry, although under American wings.
The Silicon Valley company announced the deal on Thursday, saying it would take control of Northvolt’s primary production and research sites in Sweden and Germany, which include the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, the Northvolt Labs R&D center in Västerås, and the unfinished Northvolt Drei facility in northern Germany.
It also includes all of Northvolt’s remaining intellectual property. The heavy-industry branch, which manufactures batteries for industrial applications, was acquired earlier by Scania.
From partly to full
The financial terms were not disclosed, though Lyten said the assets were worth roughly $5 billion (€4.6 billion). The deal follows a series of earlier acquisitions by Lyten, which recently bought Northvolt’s California plant and its energy storage facility in Gdańsk, Poland – the largest of its kind in Europe.
Northvolt, once hailed as Europe’s flagship battery manufacturer and a challenger to dominant Chinese producers, filed for bankruptcy in March after failing to secure new funding.
The company, founded in 2016, had ambitious plans and a high-profile customer base including Scania, BMW, and Volkswagen, but struggled with production delays and quality issues. Its collapse was seen as a significant blow to Europe’s attempts to build a battery supply chain independent of Asia.
Sovereign battery ecosystem
There were mounting fears that Northvolt’s strategically vital assets might be acquired by Chinese firms, particularly CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer. That possibility raised concerns in Brussels and Stockholm, given the EU’s push to build a resilient, sovereign battery ecosystem.
However, Lyten’s acquisition, although it is a foreign entity as well, has been welcomed by Swedish officials. Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch called it “a win for Sweden” and said it positioned the country as “key to Europe’s energy independence”.
The sale to Lyten has averted a “complete shutdown”, and it could mark a second chance for Europe’s battery sector if Lyten learns from Northvolt’s previous mistakes.
‘Pick up where Northvolt left’
Founded in 2015, Lyten develops lithium-sulfur batteries, a cleaner and potentially cheaper alternative to conventional lithium-ion cells. Its chief executive, Dan Cook, said the company aims to restart production in Sweden by 2026 and rehire a significant portion of the laid-off Northvolt workforce.
“Our goal is to pick up where the Northvolt team left off,” Cook said, adding that the firm would initially focus on supplying one customer to ensure high yield and reliability.
Cook expressed confidence that former Northvolt customers would return once the company proved its production reliability. “We think they’ll come back, perhaps quicker than people believe,” he said. Lyten has also confirmed that several of Northvolt’s former executives will join the company, although its founder and former CEO, Peter Carlsson, will not return.
