EV battery startup poaches oil veterans to build Arctic factory

A Norwegian battery maker is giving executives from the oil, gas and aluminum industries a new lease of life, tapping their experience to gain an edge in the race to electrify cars.

Freyr plans to start a pilot plant near the Arctic Circle in Norway by next year after hiring a handful of executives accustomed to running big, complicated and costly projects.

“Battery production are large, capital-intensive, energy-intensive and process-intensive projects,” CEO Tom Einar Rysst-Jensen said in an interview, noting the similarities with the oil, gas and aluminum industries. “If you want to be competitive, then you have to build on a scale.”