Sweden’s Northvolt on Wednesday mentioned the pinnacle of its foremost plant, Europe’s first homegrown gigafactory for lithium-ion battery cells, will step down with fast impact.

It comes shortly after the cash-strapped firm introduced plans to scale back its workforce by about 25% in Sweden as a part of a serious cost-cutting drive.

Mark Duchesne, CEO of Northvolt Ett, will probably be changed on an interim foundation by Angéline J. Bilodeau, the agency’s vp of operations in North America, the corporate mentioned in a press release.

The place will probably be held till the tip of the yr as the corporate seeks to safe a everlasting alternative for CEO of Northvolt Ett, it added.

Primarily based in Stockholm, Sweden, Northvolt is one in every of Europe’s most respected privately held tech corporations that builds lithium-ion batteries for the electrical car business. It has partnerships with quite a lot of main European automakers, together with Volkswagen and Volvo.

In an replace revealed Sept. 23, Northvolt mentioned that following preliminary steps taken as a part of a strategic evaluation, the corporate had revised its scope of operations in Sweden “to make sure that its sources are centered on accelerating manufacturing in large-scale cell manufacturing at Northvolt Ett.”

The strategic motion required the corporate to chop a complete of 1,600 jobs in Sweden, Northvolt mentioned.

Alongside plans to put off workers, Northvolt mentioned on the time that it will droop plans for a large enlargement of Northvolt Ett, noting the challenge had been supposed to supply an extra 30 gigawatt hours of annual cell manufacturing capability.

On Tuesday, a Northvolt Ett subsidiary filed for chapter following the choice to droop the enlargement challenge — an replace that underscores the group’s deepening monetary struggles.

Individually, Swedish automaker Volvo Vehicles on Wednesday introduced deputy CEO Björn Annwall will step down from his present function as a part of a administration reshuffle.

The reorganization at Volvo Vehicles comes shortly after the agency scrapped its near-term purpose of promoting solely electrical automobiles, citing a should be “pragmatic and versatile” amid altering market situations and cooling demand.