Volvo Cars and Northvolt have selected Gothenburg, Sweden to establish a new battery manufacturing plant that will commence operations in 2025, create up to 3,000 jobs and complement the planned R&D centre that both companies announced in December as part of an investment of approximately SEK 30 billion.
The new plant and close ties with Northvolt will significantly strengthen Volvo Cars’ electrification strategy as the company aims to produce and sell only fully electric cars by 2030. Construction of the plant will start in 2023 and it will produce state-of-the-art battery cells, specifically developed for use in next-generation pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars. The plant will have a potential annual cell production capacity of up to 50-gigawatt hours (GWh), which would supply batteries for approximately half a million cars per year.
The Swedish location of the plant, which will be built in Torslanda, Gothenburg offers benefits in terms of a direct route into Volvo Cars’ largest car plant, access to infrastructure, a strong pipeline of renewable energy supply and relevant job competences, as well as its proximity to both Volvo Cars’ and Northvolt’s R&D units.
As sustainable production is a central tenet of the partnership between Volvo Cars and Northvolt, the plant will be powered by fossil-free energy with focus on driving renewable energy capacity in the region, and will integrate engineering solutions which prioritise circularity and resource efficiency.
Battery production for Volvo Cars’ and Polestar’s fully electric models represents a large part of each car’s total life cycle carbon emissions. By working with Northvolt, a leader in sustainable battery production, and producing batteries near its manufacturing facilities in Europe, Volvo Cars and Polestar can significantly reduce the environmental footprint attributable to battery sourcing and production for their future cars.
