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Mar 24, 2026 - EV battery manufacturing - Why Europe can`t keep up



If you dominate EV battery manufacturing, you dominate electromobility. China is building one gigafactory after another, while Europe struggles with political uncertainty, lack of know-how, and large-scale projects that end up delayed or cancelled.
This is the story of an industry that`s shaping the future.
The EV battery is the core of electromobility. Europe had pinned its hopes on Swedish battery developer and manufacturer Northvolt. But it failed spectacularly.
The film follows Ismail Gulsunar, who moved to Sweden to work at Northvolt and contribute to the European dream of carving out a share of the global electric vehicle market. But hope eventually turned to disappointment: quality problems, high scrap rates, and challenges scaling up production drove Northvolt into insolvency — the largest bankruptcy in modern Swedish economic history.
So why did Europe miss the technological turning point? How strong has the dependence on Asian manufacturers become? And why is the future of European industry at stake?
The documentary also shows how Volkswagen`s German subsidiary PowerCo is trying to learn from the mistakes made. Whether Europe still has a chance in the global race for batteries — or has already squandered it — has become a key question for a continent seeking to reclaim industrial and technological sovereignty.