Northvolt

How it happened

Northvolt was a Swedish EV battery manufacturer positioned as Europe's homegrown challenger to Asian cell makers, reaching a ~$12B valuation in 2021. Production ramp problems, mounting losses, and funding shortfalls overwhelmed it, and it filed for Chapter 11 in November 2024, with backers including Goldman Sachs (~$896M), VW, and Baillie Gifford writing their stakes to zero. Employee reviews flagged the dysfunction years earlier — a chaotic ramp with no documented processes, very junior staff promoted into management, timelines so aggressive that corners got cut on quality, and spending nobody seemed to control. Staff recruited from abroad described moving families to housing-starved Skellefteå, some housed in barracks, only to be laid off within months.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.