Northvolt has begun work on its battery gigafactory in Heide, northern Germany. Northvolt Drei will have a maximum installed annual capacity of 60 GWh and will begin production in 2026, eventually making enough battery cells for 1m electric vehicles (EVs) a year.
“It’s great to get this show on the road,” said Peter Carlsson, CEO and co-founder of Northvolt. “We are deeply grateful for the support from customers, investors and public stakeholders to create this flagship project for the global climate transition.”
Northvolt said it will be supporting the climate transition in its production of battery cells by using renewable energy at the plant generated by wind power.
“Investments such as that of Northvolt are of strategic importance for our country and for Europe,” German chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Germany was, is, and will remain a country with a strong manufacturing base. And the production of good cars beyond the combustion engine continues to form the backbone of our industrial sector. For that, we need battery cells made in Germany, made in Europe.”
As reported in the spring edition of Automotive Logistics magazine, lithium battery makers in Europe are working hard to localise production and meet EU regulatory goals while protecting their supply chains from disruption.
Northvolt is already supplying Volvo production in Sweden and Belgium from its Northvolt Ett plant in Skellefteå, northern Sweden. In terms of stronger vertical integration, Volvo has also set up a joint venture company with Northvolt called Novo, and construction on a gigafactory is underway in Gothenburg, near the Volvo plant. The gigafactory will be begin production exclusively for Volvo in 2026.
In January Northvolt announced a $5 billion project to expand the Northvolt Ett gigafactory and its adjacent recycling plant, Revolt Ett, which is processing its first materials. The company said the facility is recovering battery-grade metals with a carbon footprint 70% lower than mined raw materials, thereby enabling a fully integrated, circular battery production setup that has not previously existed outside of Asia.
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