The Electric: Why Next-Gen Battery CEOs Are Dropping Like Flies

On Feb. 16, Paolo Cerruti, co-founder of Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt, visited the company’s California-based subsidiary, lithium-metal battery developer Cuberg. In recent years, Northvolt had racked up $55 billion in orders for conventional electric vehicle batteries and broken ground on three gigafactories. But Cerruti was displeased with Cuberg—specifically with its CEO and founder, Richard Wang. In 2021, Wang had sold Cuberg to Northvolt for an undisclosed sum, and gone on to develop one of the most commercially advanced next-generation batteries for electric air taxis. The main reason for Cerruti’s visit was to join Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to cut the ribbon on a new factory to manufacture Cuberg’s prototype battery. But Cerruti, a veteran of Tesla, had a second item on his agenda: He thought Wang hadn’t done enough. He hadn’t scaled up the company as quickly as he should have, nor had he obtained as many battery orders as Cerruti expected. Northvolt wanted new leadership: Wang and his two top lieutenants were out. Northvolt installed a new CEO—Shauna McIntyre, a veteran of Google and Honeywell. When the big ribbon-cutting took place, Wang watched from the crowd as McIntyre stood in front with the dignitaries alongside Cerruti as head of Cuberg.