Lyten says automaker deals will take time after Northvolt asset buy

By Marie Mannes

STOCKHOLM, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Lyten will initially target markets such as energy storage and data centres as it will take time before it can supply automakers, the battery startup told Reuters on Friday, as it completed its purchase of bankrupt Northvolt's Swedish assets.

Lyten’s post-Northvolt strategy and timeline

Focus on energy storage and data centres before automakers

Lyten, a Silicon Valley-based developer of lithium-sulfur batteries, revived hopes for European battery independence last year when it bought Northvolt's assets - once seen as the region's best chance at challenging major Chinese electric-vehicle battery makers.

Production plans for Sweden and Poland operations

The company aims to start producing commercial lithium-ion cells in the second half of 2026 at a factory in Skelleftea, Sweden. The cells will supply its battery energy storage business in Gdansk, Poland, which it also bought out of the Northvolt bankruptcy.

Automaker relationships and qualification timelines

Northvolt's main customers included Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo Cars, but Lyten’s chief sustainability and marketing officer Keith Norman said winning back automakers will take time.

"It's a wonderful market to be in, but it's a very difficult market to get into because it just takes time, rightly so," he said. "They need consistency, and that requires spending a large amount of time testing and validating and working with them."

Automotive qualification can take years, though Norman said Lyten hopes the process will move faster because former Northvolt customers already know the cells.

Near-term sectors and plant focus

For now, the company is targeting sectors such as battery-energy storage, data centres and defence.

"Some of the other markets that we're looking at ... we can get cells in customers' hands in large-scale commercial quantities much more quickly. And so that's how we're thinking about really balancing the focus of the plant," Norman said.

Hiring plans and customer updates

He added that Lyten expects to hire more than 600 employees in the coming months.  

Truckmaker Scania, a former Northvolt customer and close partner, said it was still too early to say whether it would place orders with Lyten. 

Data-centre site sale and deal financing

Lyten also said it had sold a data-centre site in Skelleftea to EdgeConneX, a portfolio company of EQT.

Completion of the deal was delayed from the original mid-October timeline. Lyten said on Friday that the purchase was financed through investments from European and U.S. investors as well as capital from the EdgeConneX transaction.

Credits

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen. Editing by Terje Solsvik and Mark Potter)