Electric Car Battery Manufacturer Northvolt Announces First Assembled Battery
Photo: Northvolt
The Swedish electric car battery company Northvolt, which competes with Tesla's battery business, has announced that it has produced the first lithium-ion cell at its plant, meeting a predetermined deadline, CNBC reported. This is an unprecedented success, boasted Northvolt: the battery produced is the first of its kind, fully developed and assembled by a European company.
Most EV batteries are currently manufactured in the US and Asia, but Northvolt is looking to change that. “Of course, the first battery is just the beginning,” said the head of the company and its co-founder Peter Karlsson. “In the coming years, we expect Northvolt to significantly increase its production capacity and we will be able to ensure Europe's transition to clean energy.”
The company was founded less than six years ago, but has already signed contracts with major manufacturers such as BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo. We are talking about the amount of more than $ 30 billion. Commercial deliveries are due to begin in 2022, and production capacity is planned to be significantly increased: it is assumed that the plant will be able to provide batteries for about a million electric cars.
Own production of batteries for electric cars is relevant against the backdrop of EU plans to ban the sale of new cars with an internal combustion engine from 2035. The world's largest automakers are also planning to gradually switch to electric vehicles, increasing their share in the total volume of production.
