欧洲电池独立化任重道远 ——浅议Northvolt公司破产

The Long Road to European Battery Independence: An Analysis of Northvolt's Bankruptcy.

当地时间3月12日，欧洲最大电池企业、瑞典动力电池公司Northvolt在官网宣布，因公司现金耗尽，已在瑞典申请破产。在此之前，Northvolt在全欧洲与众多知名企业有业务合作，是欧洲具有标志性的本土电池企业。因此有分析称，这一破产声明也意味着欧洲打造本土电池产业梦想的破灭。笔者并不认同那么极端的说法，欧洲电池独立化仍然存在可能，但是任重道远。

On March 12 local time, Northvolt, Europe’s largest battery manufacturer and a Swedish power battery company, announced on its official website that it had filed for bankruptcy in Sweden due to cash depletion. Prior to this, Northvolt had business partnerships with numerous renowned enterprises across Europe and was a locally iconic battery company on the continent. Thus, some analysts have claimed that this bankruptcy declaration signals the collapse of Europe’s dream to build a domestic battery industry. I do not agree with such an extreme view: while European battery independence remains possible, the road ahead is long and arduous.

在商业上，Northvolt显然是出现“步子太大”的问题，且只注意下游市场，不重视稳固上游。Northvolt成立于2016年，其投资方包括贝莱德、高盛、大众汽车集团等知名机构和汽车制造商，累计获得的融资金额超过百亿美元。借此，公司手握多家跨国汽车制造商的巨额订单，需要交付来自宝马、沃尔沃、大众汽车集团等主要客户总计550亿美元的订单。但问题就出在这里，在欧洲电池相关矿产和化工生产完全处于初创的时期，如果不依赖亚洲厂商，Northvolt如何满足客户庞大的产品需求呢？其结局是注定的。由于产品无法按时交付，去年6月，宝马取消了与Northvolt价值20亿美元的电芯采购合同，转而将该笔订单交给韩国的电池生产商三星SDI，随之就是Northvolt巨额债务问题暴露。截至1月31日，Northvolt旗下9家关联企业在破产程序中的债务总额已突破80亿美元。

In business terms, Northvolt clearly overextended itself by focusing solely on the downstream market while neglecting upstream supply stability. Founded in 2016, the company counted renowned institutions and automakers like BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and the Volkswagen Group among its investors, securing over $10 billion in cumulative financing. This enabled it to land massive orders from multinational automakers, including a total of $55 billion from key clients such as BMW, Volvo, and the Volkswagen Group. However, here lay the crux of the problem: when Europe’s battery-related mineral and chemical production was still in its infancy, how could Northvolt meet such colossal demand without relying on Asian manufacturers? Its fate was sealed. Due to failure to deliver products on time, BMW terminated a $2 billion cell procurement contract with Northvolt in June last year, redirecting the order to South Korea’s Samsung SDI. This triggered the exposure of Northvolt’s massive debt issues. As of January 31, the total debt of nine affiliated companies under Northvolt in bankruptcy proceedings had exceeded $8 billion.

笔者认为，对于欧洲，打造电池独立化仍是可能的，但在实际操作中，欧洲目前过于注重下游市场的建设，而忽视了上游市场的组建。在亚洲，经过多年的发展，电池和电动车产业链是完整且成熟的。反观欧洲，欧洲的支持政策过于偏向下游和终端，在资金扶持的同时，企业却难以在欧洲本地获取矿物并建设相关化工厂加工原料，相关技术落后，成本又高，其最终自然无法应付汹涌的需求，而巩固上游又是一项非常艰难的工作，尤其是在环保法规严格的欧洲。因此，对于目前的欧洲电池业，先稳固与亚洲的合作，强健根本才是良策。

In my view, building battery independence in Europe remains feasible, but in practice, the region currently overemphasizes downstream market development while neglecting upstream supply chain construction. In Asia, after years of development, the battery and electric vehicle industrial chain is complete and mature. In contrast, Europe’s support policies are overly skewed toward downstream and end-user segments. Despite financial subsidies, companies find it difficult to acquire minerals locally or build related chemical plants for raw material processing. With underdeveloped technologies and high costs, they ultimately cannot meet surging demand. Strengthening the upstream sector is an arduous task, especially in Europe where environmental regulations are stringent. Therefore, for the current European battery industry, the optimal strategy is to first consolidate cooperation with Asia and strengthen its foundational capabilities.