Swedish battery producer Northvolt has received $1.2bn in funding to expand its European and North American operations, including from US investment giant Blackrock, as a new plant in Poland begins production.
Northvolt, which specialises in producing lithium-ion batteries, announced today that it has raised the new funding in the form of a convertible note, which can be swapped for equity in the company at a later date.
Aside from Blackrock, Northvolt’s latest backers include the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario and several Canadian pension funds.
Peter Carlsson, Northvolt co-founder and CEO, said that the investment and production milestones reinforce the company’s position to meet the “massive demand for sustainable battery solutions both in Europe and North America.”
Northvolt says it now has over $9 billion in equity and debt to deliver on over $55 billion in orders from key customers, including BMW, Volvo and Volkswagen.
The company plans to deliver 150GWh of annual production capacity by 2030.
To meet this goal, Northvolt is currently developing several new gigafactories. One is in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which boasts the country’s cleanest energy grid. The other is being built in the Swedish city of Gothenburg with local carmaker Volvo and will specialise in batteries for electric cars.
The FT reports Northvolt is expected to announce a new gigafactory in North America in the coming weeks, having been lured by generous subsidies available under the US Inflation Reduction Act.
Northvolt already has a production facility in California, as well as in its home country of Sweden.
Meanwhile, a new Northvolt plant in the Polish city of Gdańsk has produced its first energy storage systems.
Northvolt has had a factory in Gdańsk since 2019, but recently finished a new 25,000 square meter plant that produces battery systems for customers in energy storage and industrial markets.
It expects to start delivering energy storage systems to customers from the new production line later this year.
The FT reports that Northvolt is expected to complete a stock market listing next year, with a valuation of around $20bn mooted.
