US battery developer Lyten wants to acquire Northvolt

The insolvent Swedish battery cell manufacturer Northvolt seems to have found a savior. The US company Lyten wants to take over all remaining sites in Europe, including the factory under construction in northern Germany. Initial reactions from local politicians have been positive.

Northvolt and Lyten already know each other from previous transactions: In the wake of the crisis at the Swedish company, Lyten took over the Californian battery production facilities of Northvolt subsidiary Cuberg last November. This was followed in July this year by the takeover of Northvolt Dwa ESS in Gdansk, Poland, a production, research, and development facility for stationary battery energy storage systems.

Now Lyten is going “all in”: The San Jose, California-based company, founded in 2015 and specializing in the production of lithium-sulfur batteries, plans to expand massively by acquiring Northvolt’s remaining sites in Sweden and Germany – but not (yet) its activities in Canada. The acquisition includes Northvolt Ett and Ett Expansion (Skellefteå, Sweden), Northvolt Labs (Västerås, Sweden), and Northvolt Drei (Heide, Germany). In addition, Lyten is acquiring all remaining intellectual property rights from Northvolt, and according to Lyten, several members of Northvolt’s current management team plan to move to Lyten. Lyten is also seeking to acquire Northvolt Six in Québec, Canada, where a 15 GWh production facility (phase 1) is currently under construction. Discussions with the Canadian and Québec governments and local stakeholders are ongoing.

Assets worth $5 billion

The financial terms of the transaction are not yet known. However, Lyten emphasizes that the acquired assets were recently valued at around US$5 billion (approx. €4.3 billion) – but whether the Americans will also pay this amount is not mentioned. In addition, the deal includes an operational battery production capacity of 16 GWh and a further 15 GWh under construction, the latter referring to the factory in Heide, Germany. Lyten explains that the acquisition will be financed entirely by private investors’ equity investments in Lyten. Lyten expects the transaction to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025.

“This is a defining moment for Lyten,” said Dan Cook, Lyten CEO and Co-Founder. “Lyten’s mission is to be the leading supplier of clean, locally sourced and manufactured batteries and energy storage systems in both North America and Europe. The acquisition of Northvolt’s assets brings the facilities and Swedish talent to accelerate this mission by years, just at the moment when demand for Lyten lithium-sulfur batteries is growing exponentially to meet energy independence, national security, and AI data center needs.”

Production in Skellefteå to be ramped up again with old workforce

Lyten plans to rehire a significant portion of the previously laid-off workforce at these plants and intends to resume the halted operations at its main plant, Northvolt Ett in Skellefteå, as well as at its important research facility, Northvolt Labs in Västerås, immediately after the transaction is completed. Given the short time frame announced, this is likely to involve Northvolt’s NMC cells. The current announcement does not indicate whether Lyten will later switch production to its own lithium-sulfur cell chemistry. Lyten currently produces lithium-sulfur batteries in Silicon Valley and sells them primarily in the drone and defense markets.

According to Lyten, cooperation with Northvolt’s previous main customers is constructive – this probably refers primarily to Scania, which is said to have been the only buyer of battery cells from Skellefteå recently. In addition, Scania had wanted to launch an initiative in June to rescue Nortvolt Labs, which will now also be taken over by Lyten.

Collaboration with German government for construction in Heide

Lyten also states that it is already working with the German government to continue construction of the battery factory near Heide in the state of Schleswig-Holstein with an initial capacity of 15 GWh. According to Northvolt’s original plans, battery cells for around one million electric cars per year were to be manufactured there in the future.

According to an NDR report, Nicolas Steinbacher, previously part of Northvolt’s management team in Germany, is to become the new managing director for the Heide site. He says: “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, and I am looking forward to setting the new course for this major industrial project, which I have been committed to every day since its inception.” Basically, the Northvolt plant in Heide, whose construction was inaugurated in March 2024 in the presence of then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), is not yet really under construction. Rather, only the site for the future production halls has been prepared so far, for example with earthworks, fencing off the site, and laying a gas pipeline, as the NDR explains.

Positive reactions from Schleswig-Holstein

Initial political reactions are positive in any case. According to NDR, Schleswig-Holsteins Minister-President Daniel Günther (CDU) welcomes the appointment of Nicolas Steinbacher as the new managing director. Günther says that there are still a few hurdles to overcome before the deal can be finalized, in particular clarifying details and conditions of implementation in Sweden and Germany. It is therefore good to have someone who is already familiar with the project leading the initiative.

SPD parliamentary group leader Serpil Midyatli is somewhat more skeptical: “It is, of course, positive that after so many negative headlines, things are finally moving forward. (…) As the process continues, we will pay close attention to whether the takeover and Lyten’s future plans are in line with the interests of the region and the goal of establishing a new business location.”

The construction of the factory in Heide has been controversial for some time because the federal government granted Northvolt a loan from the state development bank KfW in the form of a convertible bond worth €600 million, even though Northvolt’s financial situation was already weak at the time and repayment of the loan is now unlikely in view of the insolvency. In addition, the federal and state governments have also promised Northvolt a subsidy of around €700 million. The above-mentioned talks between Lyten and the federal government are now likely to focus on whether Lyten can receive the subsidies once promised to Northvolt for the construction of the plant.

lyten.com, ndr.de (in German)