Two people have died in separate incidents in the last two months at Swedish battery developer and manufacturer Northvolt’s gigafactory in Skellefteå, Sweden. A 25-year-old Northvolt employee died on 15 December after suffering burns from an explosion on a production line in early November.
Northvolt is a startup company specialising in lithium-ion technology for electric vehicles that was founded in 2015 by two former Tesla executives. The company is valued at around $20 billion and has raised more money than any other European startup. It recently announced a battery storage breakthrough by developing a sodium-ion cell that requires no lithium, cobalt, or nickel.
During the incident in early November, Northvolt said that the “ambitious” 25-year old technician was conducting regular maintenance when an explosion occurred. The worker suffered severe burns and later died in hospital. Northvolt said it immediately closed the production line and conducted an investigation. The company said the incident was a dust explosion in a machine and was not directly related to the battery manufacturing process. The production line has since restarted.
