An investment of US$750m at Northvolt’s home in Västerås, Sweden, will bolster the battery manufacturer’s R&D and testing capabilities. According to the company, it will create a fully integrated ecosystem for catalyzing technological advances in the emerging European battery industry. The plans include a new campus with lithium-ion battery design and development facilities for the entire lifecycle from the testing of active materials, cell design, battery systems engineering, to recycling.
Commented Yasuo Anno, chief development officer of Northvolt, “Establishing this campus is the natural next step for Northvolt in its mission to deliver world-leading battery technologies. R&D, cell design and module development, battery recycling, manufacturing process development – these fields cannot proceed in isolation. By bringing all the parts of the puzzle together, on a single campus, we will be uniquely positioned to develop battery solutions for the global battery market.”
Construction for the first new facility – an R&D center specially purposed for the development of novel battery cell materials and products – is already underway. Simultaneously, a new 15,000m2 office is being built to support an increase in the company’s current headcount from 400 employees to at least 1,000. A new customer center will also be established to serve as a space for partners, startups, scale-ups and academia to meet, collaborate and collectively drive forward battery tech development and vehicle electrification.
Peter Carlsson, co-founder and CEO of Northvolt, said, “There is today an irreversible momentum surrounding the switch to battery electric solutions. Northvolt Labs is being expanded in order to capitalize on this – to drive the transition at even greater speed toward safe, sustainable battery solutions. By establishing a campus where industrial actors can engage, surrounded by all necessary facilities, it is our belief that we can create the necessary foundation for Europe to emerge as the leading region for a technology that is at the heart of the race to decarbonize.”
