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Tag: Northvolt

  • Northvolt, Volvo Cars Pick Gothenburg For New Battery Plant

    Northvolt, Volvo Cars Pick Gothenburg For New Battery Plant

    Automaker Volvo Cars and battery manufacturer Northvolt will build their joint battery plant in Gothenburg, western Sweden, the two companies said on Friday. The new 50GWh plant will create up to 3,000 jobs and make battery cells specifically developed for use in pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars, the Sweden-based companies said. Operations will begin in 2025. The two companies said last year they would form a joint venture to develop batteries, including setting up a gigafactory for production and research and development centre, a total investment of about $3.3 billion.

    Northvolt and Volvo said former Tesla executive Adrian Clarke had been appointed to lead the production company.

    “He comes with a long experience from Tesla as well as around how to build these type of factories,” Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson, who also previously worked for Tesla, told Reuters.

    Volvo Cars head of engineering and operations, Javier Varela, said access to fossil-free energy, skills, and infrastructure had been factors for choosing Gothenburg, Volvo’s hometown.

    Competition for talent is fierce, with most battery engineers based in Asia. Tesla and Asian companies such as LG and Samsung SDI are also setting up factories in Europe.

    Northvolt’s gigafactory in the Swedish town of Skelleftea assembled its first battery cell at the end of December, making it the first European company to design and manufacture a battery in Europe.

    Carlsson said it was running as planned, although he said global supply-chain problems, semiconductor shortages, and the COVID-19 had made it more of a challenge. “It has not been the easiest of times,” he said.

    Volvo Cars, majority-owned by China’s Geely Holding, aims to sell 50 per cent pure electric cars by the middle of this decade and fully electric cars only by 2030.

    Northvolt, whose biggest shareholder is Volkswagen, has so far received more than $30 billion worth of contracts from customers such as BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars, and Polestar.

  • Volvo Cars And Northvolt To Open Joint R&D Centre For Battery Development In Gothenberg

    Volvo Cars And Northvolt To Open Joint R&D Centre For Battery Development In Gothenberg

    Volvo Cars and Northvolt will open a joint research and development (R&D) center in Gothenburg as part of a SEK 30 billion investment in battery development and manufacturing. The R&D center, which will become operational in 2022, will create a few hundred jobs in Gothenburg. Following the partnership announced by both companies earlier this year, Volvo Cars and Northvolt have now signed a binding agreement this week to create a joint venture for the development and sustainable production of batteries for the next generation of pure electric Volvo cars.

    The establishment of the new R&D center in Gothenburg will be followed by the construction of a new manufacturing plant in Europe. It will produce next-generation state-of-the-art battery cells, specifically developed for use in next-generation pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars. The exact location of the plant is expected to be confirmed in early 2022.

    The R&D center will be in close proximity to Volvo Cars’ own R&D operations and to Northvolt’s existing innovation campus, Northvolt Labs, in Sweden, ensuring synergies and efficiencies as it develops battery technologies.

    The partnership will focus on developing tailor-made batteries that give Volvo drivers what they want, such as range and quick charging times. Volvo Cars is working with Northvolt to create a true end-to-end system for batteries, whereby it develops and builds the batteries itself.

    As for their joint battery plant, Volvo Cars and Northvolt are in the final phase of a selection process to find a suitable location in Europe. The plant will have a potential annual capacity of up to 50-gigawatt hours (GWh), which would supply batteries for approximately half a million cars per year. It will start construction in 2023, with large-scale production in 2026, and is expected to employ up to 3,000 people.

    Alongside battery supply agreements, the partnership with Northvolt secures the European battery cell needs that are part of Volvo Cars’ ambitious electrification plans. It aims to sell 50 per cent pure electric cars by the middle of this decade, and by 2030 it aims to sell only fully electric cars.

    The partnership with Northvolt is key to Volvo Cars’ ambition to become a leader in the premium electric car segment and sell only pure electric vehicles by 2030. It also represents an important step in strengthening Volvo Cars’ own development capabilities.

  • BMW, Northvolt, Umicore team up on battery recycling

    BMW, Northvolt, Umicore team up on battery recycling

    BMW will team up with Northvolt, which is building Europe’s largest battery factory in Sweden, and Belgium’s Umicore to develop a process for electric car batteries to be recycled, the automaker said in a statement. BMW had a funding investment of undisclosed size in the venture, the Swedish startup, which plans to build a factory in Sweden to produce 32 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery capacity a year by 2023, said on Monday.

    The partnership could indicate that BMW will source batteries from Northvolt, giving investors confidence to fund the project that is expected to raise debt and equity next year.

    The project aims to create a “closed life cycle loop” for battery cells, which will be manufactured using a recyclable design and used in electric vehicles, then possibly as stationary storage devices before finally being recycled and reused.