Northvolt announces start of battery cell production at its gigafactory in Sweden

Northvolt becomes the first homegrown European battery company to achieve battery cell production in Europe with the first cells being assembled at its “Northvolt Ett” gigafactory in northern Sweden.

Northvolt is a battery startup founded by two former Tesla executives who worked on Tesla’s first Gigafactory in Nevada with Panasonic.

The company planned to recreate the “gigafactory” concept of having a giant battery factory producing in the “gigawatt-hour” level of battery cells for electric cars.

The Swedish startup received investments from several companies, including Volkswagen, to build a massive battery factory in Sweden.

Volkswagen’s investment also came with the option to create a 50/50 joint venture with the startup to build another battery factory to supply the automaker.

Northvolt is quickly becoming a key partner for Volkswagen and a few other European automakers to secure battery supply long-term.

For Volkswagen, this long-term supply will enable the company’s electric transition since the automaker ordered $14 billion worth of batteries from Northvolt earlier this year.

Today, Northvolt announced that “Northvolt Ett,” its first gigafactory in northern Sweden, has produced its very first cell (pictured above):

“The first cell of Northvolt Ett represents a milestone which Northvolt has been working towards since the gigafactory was announced in 2017. The cell is of a prismatic cell format and came off the cell assembly line on the 28th of December. Commissioning and upscaling of the factory will continue through into 2022, when the first commercial customer deliveries will be made.”

Peter Carlsson, CEO and cofounder of Northvolt, commented on the announcement:

“Today is a great milestone for Northvolt which the team has worked very hard to achieve. Of course, this first cell is only the beginning. Over the course of the coming years, we look forward to Northvolt Ett expanding its production capacity greatly to enable the European transition to clean energy.”

Now with the official start of production, Northvolt aims to gradually ramp up production to 60 GWh per year at Northvolt Ett.

The factory already has over $30 billion in contracts to supply cells to “BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.”

The first commercial deliveries are expected to start next year.