欧洲人造不好电动车，活该！
The wave of electric vehicles has allowed China to begin overtaking in a curve, but Europe's early investment was actually more. The European version of "CATL", Northvolt, has received a total of 15 billion US dollars in financing. This amount of money could fund three WM Motors (35 billion RMB), four Nezha Automobiles (22.8 billion RMB), and even save Jiyue (with a 7 billion RMB deficit) fourteen times.
Despite being so wealthy, Northvolt still could not escape the fate of bankruptcy. In this absurd story of the European star, one can not only see why Europeans can't make good batteries, but also why they can't make good electric vehicles.
Author｜Han Yongchang
Editor｜Zhang Bowen
"So this is how battery cells are made."
In late 2018, a purchaser from a European battery company, after seeing the winding machine in the factory of a Chinese equipment supplier, made such a remark.
What's more astonishing is the employees of this supplier. They found that Europe's battery manufacturing is still in the "handmade era", and they haven't even seen an automated production line.
Compared to the Chinese manufacturing industry, the European manufacturing industry has always been known for its advanced, exquisite, and highly automated nature. However, in battery production, it is completely the opposite.
This battery company is Northvolt. At that time, Northvolt was already considered the next "CATL" in Europe, but until the groundbreaking of the first factory, this company still knew nothing about battery production.
Until the moment when BMW was ready to inspect the factory, Northvolt hadn't even debugged the production equipment. Peter Carlsson, the founder from Tesla, was very nervous. "The boss led the employees to set up tents in the workshop to show BMW that the factory is working overtime. Please give us more time."
Peter Carlsson's experience at Tesla made him try his best to imitate Musk's operation when facing the production capacity hell. But the difference is that Musk wants to solve the problem, while Peter Carlsson wants to cover it up.
"After BMW's people left, the tents were also removed. This kind of thing happened more than once," an insider said.
This company, carrying the "greatest hope of Europe", completed 14 rounds of financing with a total amount of 15 billion US dollars, more than 100 billion RMB, based on the vision and imagination of battery manufacturing. This amount of money in China could invest in five second-tier battery factories.
From Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, to Volkswagen, BMW, all are optimistic about this future European star, and hope that it can drive the European battery industry to compete with China, Japan, and South Korea.
However, paper can never wrap up a fire. After surviving in absurdity for 8 years, Northvolt officially filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
On Northvolt's official website, the slogan "The real challenge is to do it well and fast" is still there, which also proves that it is not a company established just to make money.
But Northvolt's original intention of making batteries is not to copy and learn, but to surpass, which is also doomed to failure.
Perfect Timing, Location, and People, But on an Amateur Team
2016 was an excellent time to start a power battery business.
At the beginning of that year, CATL just started the A-round financing of 3 billion RMB, with a valuation of only about 20 billion RMB. BYD released the pure electric vehicle model E5, and Tesla just listed the Model 3. The global electric vehicle industry was on the verge of dawn.
At this time, Peter Carlsson, the vice president of Tesla, left the United States and returned to his hometown Sweden to establish Northvolt.
With such a glorious background, Northvolt was born with a silver spoon. European car companies and governments all need to ensure that the automotive industry remains in a leading position in the new energy era. As the heart of electric vehicles - power batteries, it naturally becomes the focus of policy support.
Thus, in 2016, the perfect timing, the European support, and the former Tesla executive, all the successful conditions were bestowed upon Northvolt, making it the apple of everyone's eye.
Volkswagen placed a ten-year order worth 14 billion US dollars, and car companies such as BMW and Volvo followed one after another. Financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs and BlackRock kept visiting. Northvolt is also very confident. Their plan is to have a planned production capacity of 150 GWh by 2030, accounting for a quarter of the European electric vehicle battery market.
However, under this ambition, this company is a huge amateur team.
Northvolt's first factory is located in the Swedish town of Skellefteå, which can be compared to Mohe in China, but with a higher latitude, close to the Arctic Circle. The magical experiences of Northvolt all occurred in this factory.
They first found an equipment supplier in Wuxi, China. This Chinese supplier sent hundreds of people to Europe to support its capacity expansion plan. However, they were surprised to find that after Northvolt purchased the equipment, it was just placed in the warehouse and not put into operation.
In 2019, Northvolt customized the first cylindrical battery production line belonging to Europe. After the equipment of this production line was transported to the site, it could not operate due to the lack of materials. "It was put in the warehouse after being powered on once and was not unpacked until 2022."
Someone who has contact with Northvolt told 36Kr that the Chinese equipment supplier wanted to work overtime, but Northvolt always maintained the usual European work schedule and left after work, which led to the project progress being completely behind schedule.
"For the Chinese people sent to the site, many times they only need to work half a day a week, and there is nothing else to do at other times."
Even more astonishing is that for each machine, Northvolt will hire a doctor to manage it, while in China, the required educational background for this position is a technical secondary school or even a high school.
When this Chinese supplier is deeply bound to Northvolt, this farce gradually reaches its climax.
An insider told 36Kr that the workshop of Northvolt in Sweden is a disastrous scene, which is a torture for everyone.
Initially, this workshop gathered engineers from the battery industry of various countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea, such as employees from SK on in South Korea. "No matter how capable they are, at least they have seen how batteries are made."
But it wasn't long before these people left, leaving only the Chinese, the local Europeans, and the Indians. About 30% of the local Europeans are black. In a country like Sweden with extremely high labor costs, such employment is more cost-effective but also more difficult to manage.
"What's even more outrageous is the Indians. They often hold meetings saying that your machine design is unreasonable, which leads to the inability to produce batteries. You should call your best engineers with all the source codes, and we will analyze the problem together."
What they discuss in the meetings every day is not to solve the problem, but to ask for drawings and codes. "Of course, if you don't give them, they will secretly download the data from the computer." The aforementioned person said.
It is also very difficult for people from multiple countries to communicate. The equipment engineers from the Chinese supplier are generally experienced but not outstanding in education, and it is difficult to communicate in English. If translation software is used, there are too many professional vocabulary that cannot be accurately conveyed.
When engineers from other countries read the translation, they themselves do not understand batteries, and the understanding is a new meaning. Therefore, Northvolt has always had difficulty mastering the skills of battery production.
There is another more difficult and outrageous problem, which is the loss of materials.
Battery production equipment requires many supporting mechanical processing parts. In the early stage, these parts were not available in Europe and could only be air freighted from China.
"These materials are very heavy iron lumps. After Northvolt signed for them, some of them would be lost at the site. In a good situation, only 70% would remain, and in a serious situation, half of them could be lost. No one knows where they were lost. After they were lost, more would be sent, and after they were sent, they would be lost again."
Of course, management problems can be coordinated and solved. The most fatal problem is that Northvolt's battery design was wrong from the beginning.
"Europe Just Doesn't Want to Make Batteries. If They Do, It Will Definitely Be Better Than China"
Northvolt knows nothing about battery manufacturing but is extremely arrogant.
In terms of industrial chain collaboration, battery manufacturers will provide the process parameters of the battery cells, and the equipment manufacturers will provide machines that can meet these parameters. However, the battery cell parameters designed by Northvolt completely do not meet the current battery cell manufacturing standards.
An engineer who visited the Northvolt workshop told 36Kr that in the slitting process, the parameter set by Northvolt is 0.1mm, but in fact, the slitting machine can only achieve 0.5mm. What is the concept of 0.1mm? Even the physical limit of this machine cannot achieve this.
But Northvolt believes that this process can be better, and Northvolt's battery production line should also be better than that in China, so the equipment must be upgraded.
When the machine is difficult to meet the requirements, only scrapped batteries can be produced. "80% of the batteries are scrapped, but they still keep making them."
Northvolt did not lower the requirements. They believe that European battery manufacturers can do better. This company also recruited a large number of highly educated people who like to put forward some innovative ideas.
For example, Northvolt's engineers will think that the camera configuration on this production line is too low and require it to be replaced with a more advanced camera.
But after replacing it with a new camera, it is even less useful than before. Because the equipment production line made by the Chinese supplier is closely linked, and a slight move in one part affects the entire situation. It is not that simply replacing it with a more advanced machine can improve efficiency. There is no way, Northvolt has to ask the Chinese supplier to install the machine back to its original state.
"This kind of thing is very common and happens frequently."
A person who has long been in contact with European enterprises told 36Kr, "Europeans don't think their battery industry is weak. They think they just haven't done it. If they do, it will definitely be better."
This is also the crux of Northvolt. They do not want to adopt a mature solution but always want to improve the manufacturing process according to their zero-experience ideas.
In the battery industry, there is a term called "know how". Simply put, it is summed up from countless failed experiences on how to do it to succeed. Northvolt has not mastered any know how, but they always think they know everything,
In the early stage, the engineers of the Chinese supplier supporting Northvolt only had tourist visas, and a new batch of people would be replaced every three months.
For a period of time, due to the epidemic, they could not fly to Sweden, so Northvolt asked the Chinese supplier to fly to Dubai for connection. "I think they don't really want to connect, but just want to find an excuse to go to Dubai for fun," a person involved said.
When the Chinese supplier cannot reach Sweden, Northvolt even has difficulty operating the machines.
For example, in the coating process, any battery company in China can coat the electrode sheet to be as smooth as a mirror, while the one coated by Northvolt itself is like a zebra-striped rag. "There can be 7-8 big holes in a 10-meter-long material belt. If this happened in CATL, dozens of pages of reports would have to be written."
Of course, Northvolt will also write reports to summarize the problems, find out the problems, and then, put the problems aside.
"In the later stage, they don't even go to the factory to check, but just write PPTs in the office. The PPTs are really beautifully made. No matter where the problem occurs, the possible solutions, and how to prevent it in the future are clearly stated. Anyone who sees it has to praise it."
But PPTs cannot become the solution to the problem because the battery process parameters set by Northvolt are wrong. If the first step is wrong, no matter how many steps are taken later, it will be of no avail.
A person who once worked with Northvolt said that the company's focus is also very peculiar. They pay extra attention to the appearance and size, and they must make the battery case more beautiful than anyone else. While Chinese battery factories, or any battery factory, focus on the chemical performance of the battery.
Another executive of a Chinese battery company who recently had communication with Northvolt said: "We can increase the battery yield of a factory to 96% in 4 months, while Northvolt took 4 years, and the yield is only 70%."
Until 2022, Northvolt held 30 billion US dollars in orders, but still did not mass-produce batteries, and the same was true in 2023.
In June 2024, BMW could no longer tolerate it and withdrew the 2 billion US dollars battery contract. Five months later, Northvolt declared bankruptcy.
As of December 2023, Northvolt's battery production capacity has only reached 1/200 of the planned target. The once-perfect timing has been missed due to Northvolt's unlimited delay, and the geographical advantage supported by Europe has also been exhausted. People from the Tesla background have ruined Northvolt.
Zeng Yuqun, the chairman of CATL, said: "Why can't Europe make good batteries? First, their design is wrong; second, their process is wrong; and finally, their production is wrong."
In fact, another sentence should be added: Their original intention, position, and attitude are also wrong.
In Conclusion
Europe is not without the ability to make batteries. In the field of power batteries, the standard VDA battery cell uses the European size, and they are the early rule makers.
The three largest car companies with the largest vehicle shipments in Europe are Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. Volkswagen has invested in Gotion High-Tech, BMW has implicitly supported CATL, and Mercedes-Benz, as a major shareholder, has helped Farasis Energy establish a product quality system.
Each car company has given great help to the Chinese power battery industry when it is in the ascendant. But European enterprises are strong in research and development, weak in implementation, and even weaker in changing. They have established a mature manufacturing mechanism and are not willing to revolutionize themselves.
In the early stage, Chinese battery enterprises quickly established a complete battery industry chain with unparalleled copying and learning abilities. After the explosion of electric vehicle sales, they continuously carried out technological innovation and crazy iterations through the large-scale application of the market, changing from a learner to a leader.
The same is true for car companies. In China, if a new car remains popular for more than one year after its launch, it is already a hit. The research and development cycle of a new car is also constantly approaching 12 months. In contrast, it may take 3-4 years in Europe.
European manufacturing has always been famous for its exquisite quality and excellent quality. Slowness is not wrong, as it is a guarantee of more reliable product quality.
But now, speed is the only secret to winning the competition in the automotive industry. The product iteration speed and sales volume determine who will become the next global automotive industry giant.
A person who has communicated with the CEOs of several European car companies told 36Kr that CEOs generally feel anxious and want to promote the innovation speed and not be conservative. But the power of one person is difficult to influence everyone in a group from top to bottom.
This is the same for car companies and Northvolt. The European electric vehicle industry is still immersed in the more than 200 years of manufacturing advantages brought by the Industrial Revolution, and its own change speed cannot keep up with the changes of the times.
They have not experienced it before, but in the future, they may understand a truth: Those who fall behind will be beaten.