Northvolt went bankrupt just as production started to take off in Skellefteå.
Europe's battery dream received a violent thorn. Now the question is: can Europe build its own battery industry and catch up with China's 20-year lead?
Yes, says the puppeteer Lars Herlitz, chairman and co-founder of Lyten - the American startup company that took over Northvolt's bankrupt estate.
In May, DN Lyten's Sweden CEO Matthias Arleth met in Skellefteå. At the time, there were no customers, financing was unclear and the largest investors were kept hidden.
Now Lars Herlitz comes forward, on location in the company's Swedish "brain", the lab in Västerås. The 63-year-old grew up in the folk home's Hällefors and Hofors, but has lived in California since 1984.
Customer contracts are still missing – the thing Northvolt built its business on.
- We are in talks with several large groups in Europe. Okay, I can say that includes major car manufacturers.
When can you say that you have the first major external customer?
- In the first half of next year, 2027, we expect to be able to have it.
This applies to Northvolt's NMC batteries, which are used in electric cars, among other things.
While waiting for external customers, the batteries will go to Lyten's own energy storage system in Northvolt's old factory in Poland. In May, it was announced that deliveries there would begin in the last quarter of the year.
Now the start is postponed.
- We expect to start shipping them from Skellefteå to Poland at the beginning of next year.
But Lyten's big future numbers are self-developed lithium sulfur batteries with the material 3D Graphene. They are lighter, can store more energy in relation to weight and require neither nickel nor cobalt.
- We have actually just started manufacturing lithium sulfur batteries here in Västerås already, and it's great fun.
When will mass production of those batteries start in Skellefteå?
- The safest thing is to say 2028, but it is possible that it could be faster.
Lars Herlitz began his professional life as a summer worker at the steel mill in Hofors, where his father was one of the managers.
Customers are just one of Lyten's challenges. Another is the money.
- The financing is secured.
Is it secured or do you just have a plan?
- Let me say a little more clearly: We have a plan for the financing that we consider ready, nothing is done until it is done of course, but it is a clear and conservative plan.
At the same time, Lyten is seeking money from the EU's new Battery Booster, which offers a total of 1.5 billion euros in interest-free loans for European battery production.
And he sends a clear signal to the government:
- It is important that our Swedish politicians support it so that not everything goes to other battery manufacturers and older technologies.
The maximum loan amount for a company is equivalent to SEK 5.6 billion.
- If we get that, we can grow faster. We can get a response as quickly as the end of the year.
Lyten has kept the cards close to the body of its major owners. When DN asked Sweden's CEO in May who is the largest owner, he replied that investors who own larger items are "well-known private individuals and want to remain private."
Now Herlitz gives a different message.
- Our biggest investor is Prime Movers Lab.
The American venture capital firm entered Lyten in 2023.
- They have just under 5 percent, are based in the USA and invest internationally. The major owners are that company, the car group Stellantis and the European Investment Fund.
But are there any big investors who don't want to go public?
- No, the ones I mentioned are the biggest investors. We have no other major investors.
Lyten's light batteries are well suited for drones. The company has a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a Pentagon agency that will introduce civilian technology into the US defense industry.
Will you manufacture batteries for the American defense industry in Skellefteå?
- I think that for the American defense industry we will have to produce in the USA.
At the same time, plans are progressing at its industrial neighbor, EQT-controlled AI data center company Edgeconnex, whose money in February finally made the Lyten deal possible. In August, the company applied for planning permission. Now a project organization has been started for the construction of the first data center.
Is there a risk that it will just be a large data center in Skellefteå in the end?
- No, absolutely not. Lyten is a company that manufactures batteries and energy storage systems, that's what we do. Then there are big coordination gains with the AI data center and it helps us fund development without risk.
