Northvolt launches battery cell production in Sweden. A European first

Swedish battery specialist Northvolt announced the beginning of production of lithium-ion battery cell at the company’s gigafactory in Northern Sweden.

As a matter of fact, the cell is the first to have been fully designed, developed and assembled at a gigafactory by a homegrown European battery company. The cell is of a prismatic cell format and came off the cell assembly line on the 28th of December. Commissioning and upscaling of the factory will continue through into 2022, when the first commercial customer deliveries will be made.

Battery cell production at Northvolt plants

Northvolt Ett gigafactory was announced in 2017. Nowadays, Northvolt Ett plant in Skellefteå employs over 500 people, representing 56 nationalities. The company is also working on improving and enhancing some recycling processes through the so-called Revolt recycling programme, aimed at producing battery cells starting from fully recycled materials.

We know that in the coming years, production capacity at Northvolt Ett will increase towards 60 GWh per year to fulfill over $30 billion worth of contracts Northvolt has secured from key customers, including BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar. To these customers in the automotive, industrial and energy storage sectors, Northvolt Ett will deliver cells of varying formats with commercial deliveries beginning in 2022.

It’s only the beginning

Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Northvolt, said: “Today is a great milestone for Northvolt which the team has worked very hard to achieve. Of course, this first cell is only the beginning. Over the course of the coming years, we look forward to Northvolt Ett expanding its production capacity greatly to enable the European transition to clean energy”.