Why Making EV Batteries Is Only for Masochists: Chris Bryant

Northvolt AB’s financial difficulties have laid bare a fundamental impediment to Europe’s hopes of building a locally owned battery industry to power the energy transition: Making batteries at scale is capital intensive and hard, ramping up production can take years, and hiccups are inevitable and potentially financially ruinous.

Experienced firms like Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and BYD Co. of China, South Korean giants LG Energy Solution Ltd., SK On Co. and Samsung SDI Co., and Japan’s Panasonic Holdings Corp., have a multi-year head start and account for the vast majority of the world’s battery production. Anyone assuming Europe can catch up quickly by throwing money and ...