“We analyzed this possibility a lot,” admitted Paolo Cerruti, CEO of Northvolt North America, when The newspaper asked him if he feared seeing billions in public aid slip through his fingers if the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA] fell under the presidency of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump, at CNBC, has already described Joe Biden’s aid to the electric sector as “stupid”, in addition to saying that electric cars “don’t go far” and “cost too much”.
At a press conference on Wednesday in Montreal, the CEO of Northvolt North America, Paolo Cerruti, made no secret of the fact that the possible return of Donald Trump to power in the United States could change the situation.
“We have to be competitive regardless of this aid. It is up to us to be competitive because in 2032, there are no[ura] more,” hammered Northvolt number 1 here.
Rain of billions of dollars
Last September, the Minister of Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, explained that production incentives for the batteries that Northvolt will manufacture and sell could reach $4.6 billion, a third of which will be paid by Quebec.
“This $4.6 billion is very conditional because they have to build the building, start production and sell the batteries. And all this holds true if the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA] is still in place,” he said.
Model of the Northvolt factory
Illustration provided by Northvolt
Obamacare
While the return of former Republican President Donald Trump cannot be ruled out, Northvolt, which suffered a loss of $1.4 billion for the first nine months of 2023, could suffer from seeing tied aid fall to the IRA overnight?
Not so fast, say experts consulted by Northvolt. In other words, it is not so easy to draw a line under large projects in the United States, according to Paolo Cerruti, co-founder of Northvolt, which also plans to go public in the coming months.
Donald Trump
Getty Images via AFP
“Trump wanted to kill Obamacare on his first day as president. He has not succeeded in four years,” Paolo Cerruti served as an example.
When we ask him if Quebec taxpayers might have to hand over money, he responds in a humorous tone.
“We can always ask for it, but we won’t get it,” he retorts straight away.
Seduction mode
Earlier, Wednesday morning, Northvolt had summoned the media to show, with PowerPoint support, that its project is going well, a week after receiving a notice of non-compliance from Quebec.
Opening of the head office, 7,033 applications received, $138 million in contracts with Quebec suppliers… the Swedish company took several hours to say that its project was going well and that it hoped to quickly obtain its dozen missing authorizations to move forward with its $7 billion mega-factory project on Quebec soil.
“We take a risk in deploying billions of dollars upstream of the project, without having the certainty of having all the permits lined up at the end,” concluded Paolo Cerruti, CEO of Northvolt North America.
Northvolt Six will include four buildings
1. Cathode active material manufacturing plant
2. Two Cell Building Blocks
3. Northvolt Recycling Plant (Revolt Six)
4. Auxiliary buildings and offices
Source: Northvolt