Volvo has found a location for its large battery factory, which has been announced for some time. The Swedish city of Gothenburg will create up to 3000 jobs and will produce batteries for about half a million electric cars every year. Construction is expected to begin in 2023.
Volvo, which is a subsidiary of the Chinese group Geely, wants to sell only electric cars by 2030. Ghent, Belgium, where Volvo Cars already builds electric cars, was also in the running for the battery factory for a long time. At the end of last year, it was announced that the site did not make it. The choice for Gothenburg is partly due to the presence of research and development centers located there.
Volvo and Northvolt have chosen Gothenburg (Sweden) as the location for a new battery factory that should be operational in 2025. Construction of the factory will start in 2023 and, according to the online car magazine autozine produce battery cells specifically developed for use in the next generation of all-electric Volvos and Polestars. The plant will have a potential annual cell production capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours (GWh), which equates to supplying batteries for approximately half a million cars per year.
The battery cell production joint venture between Northvolt and Volvo Cars will become a major player in European battery cell production and will represent one of the largest cell production units in Europe. Volvo Cars and Northvolt have appointed former Tesla CEO Adrian Clarke to lead the manufacturing company.
Autozine also knows that the Volvo-Northvolt partnership will focus on developing custom batteries and vehicle integration concepts that give Volvo and Polestar drivers what they want, including long range and fast charging times. Achieving deep vertical integration of battery development and manufacturing is important to Volvo Cars and Polestar, as the battery represents the largest individual cost component in an electric car, as well as a large part of the carbon footprint.
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