Northvolt-Volvo: a giant battery factory in Sweden

The automobile manufacturer Volvo and the company Northvolt will produce batteries for electric vehicles starting in 2025 at the Gothenburg plant.

Projects for electric vehicle battery factories are following one after the other, but not resembling each other. After the confirmation of the French site Verkor in Dunkirk, a new project is materializing in Scandinavia.

Batteries powered by renewable energy

The Volvo automotive group, owned by the Chinese Geely, announced in partnership with the specialist Northvolt a new battery plant. This “Gigafactory” will be built in Sweden, in Torslanda near the large city of Gothenburg, the two parties declared.

If we mention the Verkor project in France, it is because the schedule is close. Construction will start in 2023 for two years, with the first Volvo-Northvolt batteries arriving in 2025. They will also benefit from renewable energy and “without any fossil resources”, a plus to reduce environmental impact.

The factory will create 3,000 jobs and will require an investment of 30 million Swedish crowns (2.9 billion euros). With this project, Northvolt’s CEO Peter Carlsson hopes to be “the world’s No.1 supplier of sustainable batteries”.

Northvolt batteries for Volvo and Polestar

The site will be capable of producing up to 50 GWh of batteries per year. Both companies estimate that this will meet the needs of 500,000 electric cars annually. They will incorporate not only future Volvo models, but also the premium cars of the Polestar firm. Other subsidiaries of Geely, such as Lynk & Co or Zeekr are not involved, while Lotus will have batteries from Britishvolt in the UK.

Volvo emphasizes that its goal is to sell only electric cars by 2030, with its CEO Håkan Samuelsson aiming “to lead the premium electric vehicle segment”. In France, the Swedish brand’s catalog had already become fully hybrid by early 2022.

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