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.

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.

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.

DW Documentary