Skip to main content
Hybrid Battery Test

The shakeout

Most of them never
made a cell

Of the eight headline electric battery collapses of the last few years, not one of them made a lithium ion cell.

At a glance

  • Northvolt made 79.8 MWh in three quarters and its only confirmed customer was a truck maker
  • Britishvolt never produced a commercial cell at all
  • Proterra and Romeo assembled packs from other people's cells
  • FREYR left the sector and sells solar modules now

What each one actually did

The pattern is consistent and almost nobody reports it. The companies whose names became shorthand for the battery shakeout were mostly vehicle makers buying purchased cells, or pack assemblers, or stationary storage firms whose chemistry was never suited to a car.

A123 Systems
2012 bankruptcy, sold to WanxiangA real cell maker. Iron phosphate. Confirmed in the Fisker Karma and the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV. It did not exit lithium ion, and the Hangzhou plant still operates.
Romeo Power
Wound down in 2023 through an assignment, never a Chapter 11Packs and modules, cell agnostic, buying from Samsung, LG and BAK. Class 6 to 8 trucks only. No passenger car.
Proterra
Bankrupt 2023, assets soldPacks, not cells, and its own filings name LG as the cell developer. Its collapse also cut Volta Trucks' supply and removed Nikola's pack source.
Northvolt
US filing 2024, Swedish bankruptcy 2025A real cell maker that barely shipped, 79.8 MWh across three quarters of 2023. BMW cancelled a two billion euro order. Its one confirmed customer was Scania trucks. No passenger car ever confirmed.
Britishvolt
LiquidatedNever produced a commercial cell. Development samples only. The site is now a data centre.
Fisker
Bankrupt 2024An automaker. Its cells were CATL's.
Nikola
Bankrupt 2025Trucks. Recalled all 209 delivered battery trucks in 2023 after two fires traced to a coolant leak in the pack.
FREYR, now T1 Energy
Pivoted out of batteries entirely in 2025From its own annual filing. It had not initiated manufacturing or derived revenue from its principal business activities. It now sells solar modules.

Europe's own record

Europe tried to build its own cell industry. One company now owns most of what is left of it.

Lyten has become the default buyer of distressed European battery assets. It has taken Cuberg, Northvolt's Polish storage arm, Northvolt's Swedish plants at Skelleftea and Vasteras, the Revolt recycling business, the Heide site in Germany, and in August 2026 it was named preferred bidder for the insolvent Morrow Batteries in Norway.

Northvolt
Sweden · bankrupt, sold in piecesMade 79.8 MWh across three quarters of 2023. Its one confirmed customer was Scania trucks. No passenger car ever shipped with its cells.
NOVO Energy
Sweden, Volvo and Northvolt · never produced a cell, hibernated January 2026The Gothenburg plant never began production as planned. Volvo took full ownership for reportedly no consideration, then put it into hibernation after failing to find a technology partner.
ACC
France, Germany, Italy · two of three plants permanently abandonedKaiserslautern and Termoli were abandoned for good in February 2026, judged no longer viable. The one operating plant at Douvrin can equip only about a thousand vehicles a month, with delivery delays running to eight months. ACC then called building new battery factories totally irresponsible.
Morrow Batteries
Norway · insolvent May 2026One of very few European plants that actually made cells. No passenger car used them.
Britishvolt
United Kingdom · liquidatedNever produced a commercial cell. The site is now a data centre.
FREYR
Norway, now T1 Energy in Texas · left the sector entirelyIts Norwegian plant has been rezoned as a 50 megawatt data centre. The company sells solar modules now.
Not confirmed. The five billion dollar figure attached to the Northvolt purchase is Lyten's own valuation of the assets, not a price paid. No consideration has been disclosed, and Lyten raised only 200 million dollars to fund the acquisitions. Do not repeat five billion as a purchase price.

For a sense of what a cancelled gigafactory is actually worth, KORE Power agreed to be acquired in June 2026 for 32 million dollars. That is the whole company.

Questions people actually ask

Did Northvolt cells ever go into a car you could buy
No. Its one confirmed customer was Scania trucks. The Volvo joint venture never produced a cell and was put into hibernation in January 2026.
Is the electric battery industry collapsing
The companies that failed were mostly not cell makers. Separating actual cell manufacturers from vehicle makers, pack assemblers and stationary storage firms changes the picture considerably.

Buying a Used EV or Hybrid?

Get the battery measured before you pay for it. A PPI Auto inspector tests the pack on the car you are looking at and sends you the numbers. Starting at $225.

Book a battery test