Swedish battery producer Northvolt introduced that on December twenty eighth, it efficiently produced the primary lithium-ion battery cell to be designed, developed, and constructed fully in Europe by a homegrown firm.
“Final night time, the commissioning of the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden led to the meeting of the primary battery cell,” Northvolt wrote. The corporate’s manufacturing facility, positioned in Västerås, Sweden, is the primary manufacturing facility in Europe to have a cell that has been “totally designed, developed and assembled at a gigafactory by a homegrown European battery firm,” the corporate added.
The manufacturing of the cell is an enormous milestone for Northvolt, which has been working to get its gigafactory up and operating since 2017. The corporate stated the cell is of a prismatic cell format, which consist of huge sheets of anodes, cathodes, and separators sandwiched, rolled up, and pressed to suit right into a metallic or hard-plastic housing in cubic kind, in line with AllAboutCircuits.
“Immediately is a superb milestone for Northvolt which the workforce has labored very exhausting to realize,” Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founding father of Nortvolt, stated. “In fact, this primary cell is just the start. Over the course of the approaching years, we sit up for Northvolt Ett increasing its manufacturing capability tremendously to allow the European transition to scrub vitality.”
Northvolt Ett’s first Prismatic Lithium-ion cell. (Credit score: Northvolt)
Northvolt Labs in Västerås has been in manufacturing since early 2020, the corporate stated. Northvolt plans to develop the manufacturing capability of the ability towards 60 GWh per yr, which is able to fulfill over $30 billion value of contracts the battery maker has already locked up with varied automotive producers, together with BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo, Polestar, Fluence, and Scania. Northvolt Ett will commercially ship varied cell sorts in 2022.
Whereas the corporate is predicated in Europe and has varied partnerships with European automotive and vitality storage corporations, it has no plans to solely service entities which are solely positioned on the identical continent. Earlier this yr, Northvolt advised the Monetary Occasions that it deliberate to enterprise into Asia and North America, the place large corporations like China’s CATL, South Korea’s LG, SK Group, and Samsung, and Japan’s Panasonic are already establishing a presence. Firms in Asia have the identical plans, as LG and CATL have plans to open battery manufacturing crops in Poland and Germany. SK Group will develop on its already-operational Hungarian manufacturing facility.
Northvollt already employs over 500 folks, representing 56 nationalities at its Skellefteå location.
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