The Swedish company has $30 billion worth of battery contracts with manufacturers like BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen and Volvo Cars.
Northvolt announced that its gigafactory in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, has assembled its first lithium-ion battery cell. The cell is the first fully designed, developed, and assembled at a gigafactory (a large-scale battery plant where the yearly output is measured in gigawatt-hours) by a homegrown European battery company. The factory’s commissioning and upscaling will continue through 2022, when the first commercial customer deliveries are made.
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Northvolt says that In the coming years, production capacity at Northvolt will increase towards 60 GWh per year to fulfil over $30 billion worth of contracts that Northvolt has secured from critical customers, including BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.
“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 coming years, we look forward to Northvolt expanding its production capacity greatly to enable the European transition to clean energy,” said Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder, Northvolt.
The company recently raised more than $6.5 billion from a host of investors to help it expand its operations. The latest funding round, Northvolt’s most significant yet, was co-led by Goldman Sachs and VW, alongside new investors including Swedish pension funds AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4 and Canadian pension provider OMERS.
