Volvo and Northvolt accelerate electrification push with new gigafactory in Sweden
Posted by Tejas Kokcha on Mar 21, 2022
Volvo is pushing towards being a “fully electric car company” by the year 2030 and to achieve this goal it has partnered with Swedish battery developer Northvolt.
The two Swedish companies have announced that they will be building a gigafactory which will “have a potential annual cell production capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours” and create specifically developed batteries for Volvos and Polestars while also generating a whopping 3,000 jobs. The recruitment of the factory will begin by late 2030.
If you’re new to the electric car flora and fauna then you will not know what a gigafactory exactly is. The term ‘Gigafactory’ was first coined by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and it basically means a factory that produces batteries for electric cars on a large scale.
The gigafactory will be based in Gothenburg, Sweden and also incorporate an R&D centre announced back in December 2021 by Volvo. A major investment of around 30 billion Swedish krona, or $3.29 billion has gone into building this.
“Establishing this gigafactory in Gothenburg is a decisive move, both to continue to transform one of the most dynamic automotive regions in the world, and to become the leading global supplier of sustainable batteries”, said Peter Carlsson, Co-Founder and CEO of Northvolt.