
Northvolt to build German battery gigafactory with Volkswagen
Construction of the ‘gigafactory’ facility is scheduled to start in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, next year. Production of 16 GWh a year is planned to start by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.
The finalization of the joint venture is the result of an agreement which both parties concluded in June, using part of the €900m investment by Volkswagen. That deal also sees VW take a 20 percent stake in Northvolt.
“The battery cell is the key component for electric mobility. Therefore, Volkswagen and Northvolt are together pushing ahead efficient cell production in Europe to accelerate their joint battery activities. With the founding of the joint venture and the planned construction of a battery cell factory in Salzgitter, we are making a decisive contribution to establishing the core battery cell technology in Germany as well,” said Dr. Stefan Sommer, Member of the Volkswagen AG Board of Management responsible for Procurement and now a member of the Supervisory Board of Northvolt.
The joint venture will be led by Fredrik Hedlund, the former Chief Strategy Officer of Northvolt. “Building a gigafactory in Germany together with Volkswagen allows Northvolt to further increase the production capacity of green battery cells with a minimal CO2 footprint. This will have a significant impact on electrification in Europe,” said Hedlund.
VW is planning to launch almost 70 new electric models in the next ten years, and has a demand of more than 150 GWh a year from 2025 in Europe and the same in Asia, so the jointventure will provide just ten percent of VW’s needs for the 22m vehicles it plans to make.
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