Northvolt Injecting $750 Million to Power EV Battery R&D

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Northvolt (Stockholm, Sweden), Europe's leading light for becoming a major source of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, has announced plans to invest US$750 million to expand its labs in Västerås, Sweden, into a fully-integrated ecosystem for making lithium-ion batteries.

The new campus aims to bring all aspects of lithium-ion development and production under one roof. It will expand the existing Northvolt Labs, which comprises the cell industrialization plant with adjacent testing facilities and the Revolt pilot recycling plant, which will feed recycled raw materials directly into on-site production. Key facilities under development include platforms for material and cell R&D and industrialization, battery systems development and battery recycling.

The company said that the first new facility is already under construction--an R&D center--which will enable development of novel battery cell materials and products. In parallel, a new 15,000-square-meter office is also under development to support an increase in headcount from 400 people today to "at least 1,000."

Industrial Info is tracking a number of projects associated with Europe's first and largest EV battery project by Northvolt, located in Skellefteå, Sweden. The plant aims to start large-scale manufacturing this year with an initial annual capacity of 16 gigawatt hours (GWh), or enough batteries for 250,000 cars, and this will ramp up to at least 32 GWh by 2024, with the potential to expand to 40 GWh in the future. Last year, German automaker BMW (Munich, Germany) signed a 2 billion-euro (US$2.3 billion) battery deal with Northvolt to support its big push into the EV market. For additional information, see August 3, 2020, article - BMW Signs $2.3 Billion EV Battery Deal With Sweden's Northvolt.

Peter Carlsson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Northvolt, said: "There is today an irreversible momentum surrounding the switch to battery electric solutions. Northvolt Labs is being expanded in order to capitalize on this -- to drive the transition at even greater speed towards safe, sustainable battery solutions. By establishing a campus where industrial actors can engage, surrounded by all necessary facilities, it is our belief that we can create the necessary foundation for Europe to emerge as the leading region for a technology that is at the heart of the race to decarbonize."

Yasuo Anno, chief development officer of Northvolt, added: "By bringing all the parts of the puzzle together, on a single campus, we will be uniquely positioned to develop battery solutions for the global battery market."

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