Swedish Northvolt Labs gets ready to rumble

– When old technology is phased out and overtaken by electrification in the coming years, batteries are going to become the differentiating factor. With increasing technology differentiation and substantial growth of R&D efforts from sophisticated customers, especially in the transportation industry, our strategy with Northvolt Labs is to provide a facility for them to develop their own design, then test, industrialize and qualify it, before taking it to large-scale production, said Peter Carlsson, Co-Founder and CEO, Northvolt.

Facts sheet: Northvolt Labs Northvolt Labs is a cutting edge scale-up line and research facility used to develop, test and industrialise lithium-ion battery cells before large-scale production.

• The facility will enable fully process representative manufacturing and allow a faster and more efficient time to market for unique formulations, cell formats and technology.
• At Northvolt Labs, Northvolt will be able to fully validate product and process development, from active material for finished cell, for multiple form factors.
• Capacity: 125 MWh/year
• Employees: 300-400
• Square meters: 19'000

The facility will be built in Västerås (a town close to Sweden's capital Stockholm), which is home to several multinational companies with Engineering and R&D expertise in electrification and process optimisation. – Northvolt is now entering the next phase, going from a planning to a physical phase. With a number of key partners and customers onboard, and with major progress made within cell, product and process development, we are now ready to take the next step, Peter Carlsson continues. With support from the EIB and InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators Energy Demonstration Projects facility, the Swedish Energy Agency, and industrial partners, the establishment of Northvolt Labs is seen as a key step towards the launch of Northvolt’s large-scale battery cell factory. It also marks the first step towards the creation of a European value chain for large-scale battery cell manufacturing. – Batteries are at the heart of the industrial revolution. The Northvolt project shows that Europe has what it takes to become the world’s leader in innovation, decarbonisation and digitisation. I am proud to open this cutting-edge facility in Västerås together with our strategic partners: Northvolt and its EU consortium, Sweden and the EIB. We will continue to work together under the European Battery Alliance to make sure we establish competitive value chains in sustainable batteries production in Europe, said Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič of the European Commission. – The European Investment Bank is very pleased to finance Northvolt’s battery research, development and innovative manufacturing techniques, which will support the creation – in Europe - of highly specialized jobs and knowledge essential to Europe’s clean energy transition. I hope that today’s event and the signing of our EUR 52.5 million loan contract with Northvolt will also help catalyse a number of similar investments across other EU Member States, said Vice-President Andrew McDowell of the EIB.