Northvolt, Volvo Cars pick Gothenburg for new battery plant

Volvo Cars and battery manufacturer Northvolt will build their joint battery manufacturing 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 next-generation electric Volvo and Polestar cars, the Sweden-based companies said.

Last year, the companies announced plans for a joint venture to develop batteries for electric cars, including setting up a gigafactory for production and an R&D centre, a total investment of about 30bn Swedish krona (roughly R50,331,600,000).

They said in December the joint R&D centre, also located in Gothenburg, will begin operations this year.

Volvo Cars and Northvolt, whose biggest shareholder is Volkswagen, said on Friday they expect operations in the new plant to begin in 2025.

"Establishing this gigafactory in Gothenburg is a decisive move — both to continue to transform one of the most dynamic automotive regions in the world and to become the leading global supplier of sustainable batteries," Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson said.

Volvo Cars, majority owned by China's Geely Holding, aims to sell 50% electric cars by the middle of this decade and only electric cars by 2030.

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.

Northvolt, which rivals the likes of Tesla, LG Chem and CATL, has so far got more than $30bn (roughly R457,769,400,000) worth of contracts from customers such as BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.

Reuters