Not one, but two new battery facilities in Gothenburg
Between now and 2026, we’ll create up to 3,000 new jobs in Gothenburg, Sweden as part of our battery investments together with Northvolt.
The proposed Volvo Cars and Northvolt battery plant will have a potential annual capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours.
You may recall that just before the Christmas break, we told you about the latest and greatest in our rapidly developing partnership with Northvolt. Back then, we had just signed our final agreement with our fellow Swedish battery boffins and revealed that we’d jointly invest approximately 30 billion SEK in a new R&D centre and a battery manufacturing plant. So far, so familiar right?
While we could confirm already then that the R&D centre will be built in Gothenburg, negotiations were still very much ongoing with regards to the exact location of the battery plant. Today, we can reveal that we have settled on a location for that manufacturing facility as well. So without further ado, let’s open that golden envelope, shall we?
And the winner is…. *drum roll* …Gothenburg again!
That’s right, our Torslanda, Sweden campus will get not one, but two new facilities in coming years that are crucial to our all-electric future. Together, they’ll create up to 3,000 new jobs in areas such as engineering, manufacturing and logistics planning, and assembly. The R&D centre will start operations already later this year, while construction of the plant is scheduled to start in 2023.
“Our new battery plant will support our ambition to have a fully climate-neutral manufacturing network and secure high-quality batteries for our European car plants for years to come.”
There are several reasons why we picked Sweden’s Gothenburg region. Access to the right infrastructure, transport links and competence are important ones, while it’s also positive that both facilities will be close to our existing R&D units.
The plant will have a potential annual capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours, which translates to batteries for approximately half a million cars every year. Crucially, it will also be powered by fossil-free energy, with a focus on renewables. This matters because battery production for our fully electric cars represents a large part of their total life cycle carbon emissions.
By teaming up with Northvolt, a leader in sustainable battery production, and producing batteries near our European car plants, we can significantly cut emissions related to battery sourcing and production.
This investment creates the advantage of our batteries fitting our electric Volvos like a well-tailored suit.
“Our new battery plant will support our ambition to have a fully climate-neutral manufacturing network and secure high-quality batteries for our European car plants for years to come,” said Javier Varela, our head of engineering and operations. “We’ll also benefit greatly from an end-to-end battery value chain, from raw material to complete car, ensuring optimal integration in our cars.”
Working with Northvolt means we create a true end-to-end system for our batteries that keeps us closely involved in all parts of the process: development, sourcing, manufacturing and second-life planning. Just like we develop our cutting-edge safety tech in-house, such vertical integration allows us to control the process for creating our batteries from A to Z.
That has two major benefits. First, we can be as efficient as possible and control costs, because batteries are the largest individual cost component in an electric car. Secondly, we can ensure that our batteries fit our electric Volvos like a well-tailored suit and deliver on the things our customers expect from our cars: a good range and short charging times.
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