Northern Sweden’s Northvolt Battery Plant Starts Production

Published at: Jan 05 2022 - 09:22 / Updated at: Jan 05 2022 - 09:22

Sweden’s Northvolt said on Wednesday its new gigafactory in northern Sweden has assembled its first battery cell, making it the first European company to design and manufacture a battery on the continent, according to Arctic Today.

The factory is set in the small, industrial town of Skellefteå in Sweden’s main cluster of mines and mineral resources.

The cell is of a prismatic cell format — a variety of thinner and lighter battery — and came off the assembly line on Tuesday. The first batteries will be kept by Northvolt for further testing and validation

The company is aiming for the Skellefteå plant to achieve production capacity of 60 gigawatt hours (GWh) as it aims for at least a 20-25 percent market share in Europe by 2030. It has received over $30 billion worth of contracts from customers such as BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.