Issue 9: The man behind Imperial Valley’s lithium-ion battery factory plans
Lars Carlstrom, who was convicted of tax fraud by Sweden’s tax authority in the 1990s, has set his eyes on building a battery factory in the Imperial Valley.
Fresh this Week
U.S. Energy Secretary Makes Surprise Visit to Calipatria
In an unannounced visit to the Imperial Valley, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm met with a small contingent of environmental and social justice groups at the Calipatria High School on Wednesday.
U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz and Rep. Juan Vargas joined what appeared to be a group of members of various local organizations looking to hear Granholm speak about President Joe Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, a federal effort to advance environmental justice and spur economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities.
The public was not invited to this meeting.
Prior to her visit in Calipatria, Granholm met with some groups in the Coachella Valley where she listened to some residents’ concerns about the Salton Sea, KYMA-TV reported. Granholm said “she is listening and she’ll be bringing back all the comments and opportunities to share with the White House.”
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IID District Election Candidates Bring Up Lithium
As the local election year heats up for some IID seats, candidates for Division 1 and 3 debated on separate nights but with little mention of lithium extraction projects.
Division 1 director Alex Cardenas debated his challenger, Andrew Arevalo, on Monday to debate a number of topics including the department’s role in lithium extraction.
The extent of that discussion was limited, the Desert Review reported, with Cardenas emphasizing channeling IID royalties back into the community and with Arevalo focusing on jobs and education and training in the valley.
Division 3 candidates met on Wednesday night to discuss a number of important issues like water rates, solar energy, IID board decorum and northern Imperial County.
Between the Lines
The Man Behind Imperial Valley’s 54 GWh Gigafactory Plans
Lars Carlstrom, a Swedish entrepreneur who was convicted of tax fraud in Sweden in the 1990s, has announced plans to build a $4 billion battery manufacturing facility in the Imperial Valley.
The announcement on Tuesday centered around the creation of a new company, Statevolt, headed by Carlstrom who is also the CEO and founder of Italvolt in Italy.
In this new venture, Statevolt would be partnering with Controlled Thermal Resources to source its locally extracted lithium and make batteries out of a 54 GWh gigafactory in Imperial County. Both companies touted the potential benefits to the electric vehicle market and the region’s economy: at full capacity, Statevolt could supply batteries for up to 650,000 electric vehicles a year and create 2,500 good-paying jobs.
According to a pitch deck from Statevolt, construction would begin between 2023 and 2024 and production of lithium-ion batteries would begin in 2025. The company also plans to raise $1.7 billion in private equity funding, $1.6 billion in debt financing or loans, and $600 million in tax-payer, government funding.
Though Carlstrom is a new name to the Imperial Valley, the Swedish entrepreneur is well known to European news outlets who have followed the trajectory of his career, including his time at Britishvolt, a battery manufacturing company in the United Kingdom.
Carlstrom spent most of his professional career in Stockholm, Sweden, and in London where he was CEO of a company that sold used cars and light vehicles for more than three years, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company dissolved in 2019.
By late 2019, he co-founded Britishvolt where he served as chairman. But by late 2020, just one year later, Carlstrom stepped down from Britishvolt when a U.K.-based PA news agency made public his conviction. Swedish news agency SVT reported in 2010 that Carlstrom had been convicted of gross misconduct against creditors and tax fraud in Swedish court in the late 1990s.
For that conviction, he was originally sentenced to eight months in prison and barred from doing business for four years, but an appeals court later reduced it to a suspended sentence and 60 hours community service, SVT reported.
And just a few months after stepping down from his role at Britishvolt, Carlstrom launched Italvolt in early 2021 promising a $4.3 billion (€4 billion) battery gigafactory in Scarmagno, Italy. In a pitch to investors, Italvolt estimates it would begin battery manufacturing in the second half of 2024.
On Thursday, at a Lithium Valley Stakeholder gathering of community leaders and entrepreneurs at the Imperial Valley College, Carlstrom disclosed his conviction to the audience and categorized it as a small incident that happened in 1992.
“This is a very small matter,” Carlstrom told me outside the auditorium as he was arriving for the gathering. Carlstrom said he had previously disclosed this to CTR, his business partner in building the battery manufacturing facility in Imperial County.
“It’s in the public domain, it’s a piece of shit the whole thing,” he said. “It’s nothing, to be honest.”
Previously, Carlstrom said in a statement that he did not want his past record to be a distraction to Britishvolt when he stepped down in 2020. At the time he said, “I am aware of this minor allegation that stems from over 25 years ago. Subsequently I have had endorsement from the Swedish government.”
But on Thursday, he said something else.
“It’s not the reason,” he said referring to his reason to step down from his role at Britishvolt. “We had a different view on how the company would be led and therefore we decided to separate in business.”
When asked if he was worried that his past would be a distraction in his latest venture in Imperial County, he said no. “That was 30 years ago, I’m 57.”
Rod Colwell, CEO of CTR, did not return calls for comment prior to the publishing of this newsletter.
Imperial County Board Supervisor Ryan Kelley said he had recently learned of Carlstrom’s past.
“I only became aware of that last night,” Kelley said on Wednesday. “Although that was more than a few years ago and he has continued to develop projects in Europe and now here.”
Kelley, who is also the vice-chair of the state-appointed Lithium Valley Commission, added, “I would hope to give him the benefit of the doubt but if I learn more I would take that into consideration. I am hopeful and optimistic that this project is true and will be delivered. But if I learn more, I’ll take that into consideration.”
As of this publishing, a website for Statevolt was still not active.
Movements to Watch
The Lithium Valley Commission is meeting on Thursday, April 28, to announce the addition of a new member of the commission and discuss the drafting of a support letter for Imperial County’s Lithium Valley Economic Opportunity Investment Plan.
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