Sweden’s Northvolt has raised $1.6bn through a consortium of global financiers to support the development of lithium ion battery gigafactories in Germany and Sweden, as well as investments in research, industrialization and recycling.
The fresh financing brings the company’s total capital raised to date to over $3bn.
“The momentum for electrification is stronger than ever. Our customers need large volumes of high-quality batteries with a low CO2 footprint, and Europe must build a fully regionalised value chain to support them,” said Peter Carlsson, co-founder and chief executive of Northvolt.
The company currently is building its first gigafactory – Northvolt Ett – in Skellefteå in Sweden, which will have a potential annual output of 40GWh, and is scheduled for a start of production next year.
Northvolt is also in the permitting process for Northvolt Zwei, a joint venture with carmaker Volkswagen that is slated to come on line in 2024 in Salzgitter, Germany, with a potential output of more than 20GWh.
The Swedish company that was launched only 2017 targets a 25% market share in Europe’s growing market for batteries for electronic vehicles by 2030, equaling about 150GWh of commissioned annual production capacity.
Other car manufacturers are also keen to secure a European supply of batteries to rid themselves of their dependency on Asian producers.
Among them is BMW, which earlier this month had signed a long-term supply contract worth €2bn ($2.3bn) with Northvolt to supply it with battery cells from Sweden.
“Signing this contract is another step towards meeting our growing need for battery cells in the long term. We are systematically driving electrification of our vehicle fleet. By 2023, we aim to have 25 electrified models on the roads – more than half of them fully-electric,” said Andreas Wendt, member of BMW’s management board.
