Volvo and Northvolt introduced plans as we speak to construct their beforehand introduced battery gigafactory in Gothenburg, Sweden and employed a Tesla govt to guide the brand new plant.
It’s going to have an annual capability of as much as 50 GWh to help the manufacturing of 500,000 electrical vehicles per yr, with operations aimed to begin by 2025.
Northvolt is a battery startup based by two former Tesla executives who labored on Tesla’s first Gigafactory in Nevada with Panasonic.
The corporate deliberate to recreate the “gigafactory” idea of getting a large battery manufacturing facility producing within the “gigawatt-hour” degree of battery cells for electrical vehicles.
It acquired backing and began manufacturing facility tasks with a number of automakers, together with Volkswagen, and final yr, it added Volvo to the listing with a plan to construct a brand new battery manufacturing facility in Europe to help the Swedish automaker’s EV ambitions.
In December, Northvolt introduced that it began battery cell manufacturing at its first gigafactory – lending extra credibility to its a number of different battery factories in partnership with automakers.
As we speak, Volvo and Northvolt launched a joint announcement to substantiate that their plans for a brand new gigafactory are shifting ahead in Gothenburg, Sweden:
“Volvo Automobiles and Northvolt have chosen Gothenburg, Sweden to ascertain a brand new battery manufacturing plant which can start operations in 2025, create as much as 3,000 jobs, and complement the deliberate R&D centre that each corporations introduced in December as a part of an funding of roughly SEK 30 billion.”
Building on the brand new manufacturing facility will begin subsequent yr so as to begin producing cells in 2025.
As soon as absolutely ramped up, the businesses intention for the brand new facility to provide 50 GWh, which Volvo says be sufficient to help the annual manufacturing of round 500,000 electrical automobiles for itself and Polestar.
Particularly, the brand new manufacturing facility goes to be in-built Torslanda, Gothenburg – close to Volvo’s largest automotive plant.
Håkan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Automobiles, commented on the announcement:
“Our battery cell partnership with Northvolt is essential to our strategic ambitions in electrification. We’re dedicated to turning into a pacesetter within the premium electrical automotive phase and promoting solely pure electrical automobiles by 2030.”
Peter Carlsson, Co-Founder and CEO of Northvolt, added:
“Establishing this gigafactory in Gothenburg is a decisive transfer, each to proceed to rework probably the most dynamic automotive areas on the earth, and to turn into the main international provider of sustainable batteries.”
The 2 corporations additionally introduced that they employed Adrian Clarke from Tesla to guide the brand new manufacturing facility.
Clarke was the design lead at Tesla for Gigafactory Nevada and labored with Carlsson and Paolo Cerruti (founders of Northvolt) on the enormous battery manufacturing facility.
Most just lately, Clarke took over from ‘Mister Gigafactory‘ to guide the Gigafactory Berlin effort for Tesla.
In line with his LinkedIn profile, he was main “general manufacturing facility design, procurement, building and manufacturing facility operations, and upkeep organizations” for Tesla at Gigafactory Berlin earlier than being employed away by Northvolt final month.
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