Scania's Bid to Keep Europe's Battery Production Hopes AliveScania's Bid to Keep Europe's Battery Production Hopes Alive

Swedish truck maker Scania is making a last-ditch effort to rescue the filing Northvolt auto battery manufacturer.

That’s the claim made by industry sources speaking to the Reuters news agency. The truck company, controlled by Volkswagen's commercial vehicles arm Traton Group, is helping Northvolt keep up the daily running of its business in a bid to improve production quality and output as it seeks to secure more funding.

Internal company documents seen by the news agency record details that Scania has been sending key technical staff to Northvolt's Ett plant in Skelleftea since November. The plant employs some 2,500 people.

The story is also confirmed by some Northvolt plant employees who add Scania representatives have been seen as recently as last week.

Scania acknowledged to Reuters it was assisting with the production ramp-up and it had sent staff to the Northvolt Ett plant for a period but declined to provide further comment.

Reuters could not ascertain the exact number of Scania employees involved in the initiative.

Europe is desperate to boost its domestic production of batteries for electric vehicles in the face of competition from China and the U.S. Yet Northvolt was forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year after financing talks with investors and creditors including Scania, Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen collapsed amid persistent worries over quality.

Now Reuters has been told by the chief safety union representative at Northvolt, Mikael Stenmark, that the truck maker had been helping improve Northvolt’s organizational structure.

A collapse of Northvolt, which could come within weeks unless additional funds can be raised, may leave Scania without immediate battery options, even though it has been in talks with other suppliers.

Stenmark says: “The others (customers such as Audi and Porsche) have not been that interested in the same way. We still have Scania helping us, they are not leaving us behind and they are trying to help us run a business the right way.”