Northvolt took over the current factory in 2021, in connection with the acquisition of American Cuberg.
The deal with Lyten follows Northvolt's closure of a research and development center in San Leandro last autumn and laid off 200 employees, whose operations were moved to Västerås.
Buyer wants to invest 550 million
Lyten is now buying the factory facility and taking over the lease agreement for the property from Northvolt. The plan is to invest around 50 million dollars (equivalent to 550 million kronor) in the facility over the next few years, according to Bloomberg.
Northvolt – in financial crisis since earlier this year – is still seeking multi-billion amounts for both short- and long-term financing. Negotiations are ongoing with owners, lenders, and customers, and the focus has been on saving the core business in Skellefteå, where the company has now concentrated most of its resources to get the production capacity up at the battery factory Northvolt One.
They're moving forward. We're seeing progress, but such processes tend to take a bit longer than expected, says Northvolt's press chief Erik Zsiga about the financing talks.
According to Zsiga, the factory sale to Lyten in California is good news.
Northvolt welcomes this positive deal and is grateful for the cooperation with Lyten to get there, he says.
Negotiating with Volvo Cars
This autumn, the crisis-stricken battery manufacturer has discontinued several major development projects, made large personnel reductions, and put the subsidiary Northvolt Expansion – which was building a new battery factory – into bankruptcy with several billion in debts.
Northvolt is also negotiating with car manufacturer Volvo Cars about the future of the factory construction Novo Energy in Gothenburg, since co-owner Volvo Cars accused co-owner Northvolt of breach of contract.
Earlier in the week, Sven Fuhrmann, the largest Northvolt owner Volkswagen's representative on Northvolt's board, resigned from his assignment. This is because Volkswagen, with its own major financial problems, has so far not wanted to discuss capital injections to save Northvolt.
