(Bloomberg) -- Battery maker Northvolt AB told employees at a subsidiary in San Francisco to reapply for jobs within the group after deciding to move its R&D efforts from California to Sweden.
Cuberg, a battery technology company acquired by Northvolt in 2021, will also see its Chief Executive Officer Shauna McIntyre take on a leadership role within Northvolt North America, according to a statement.
Cuberg founder and former CEO Richard Wang described the development as “a sad day for me, the entire Cuberg family that I have known for the last nine years, and the battery industry at large.” Writing in a post on LinkedIn he added, “Northvolt has officially announced that it is closing down all of Cuberg’s operations and centralizing its R&D efforts in Sweden.”
A Northvolt spokesperson didn’t disclose if the U.S. unit was being wound down, but the statement cited “the most cost-efficient pathway for industrialization of lithium-metal technology” as a reason for the move to Sweden.
“There are now roughly 200 of the most respected and capable engineers and managers in the battery industry looking for new opportunities,” Wang said in the social media post.
Northvolt has been beset by operational hurdles in recent months including delays to battery deliveries and concerns over health and safety conditions for its workers. In May, Bloomberg News reported that the company’s possible initial public offering in Sweden had been pushed back to 2025 at the earliest.
The battery maker in January secured a US$5 billion green loan. That took its overall funding to about $20 billion in a combination of debt, equity and grants.
With assistance from Rafaela Lindeberg
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