In Europe, where the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the world is the highest, the first European company to independently design and manufacture batteries in Europe has emerged. On December 29, Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt announced on its official website that the company successfully completed the assembly of the first lithium-ion battery at the Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden, achieving the goal of putting the plant into operation by the end of the year.
Lithium batteries produced at the Northvolt Ett Gigafactory
Developed by Northvolt's industrialized plant in Västerås, Sweden, the prismatic battery, the prismatic battery has been in production since early 2020. Assembled on December 28 on the production line at the Northvolt Ett Gigafactory, the first batteries will be used for further testing and upgrades, with commercial deliveries scheduled for 2022.
Northvolt said the battery is the first battery to be designed, developed and assembled entirely by a european battery company, marking a new chapter in European industrial history.
According to the announcement, Northvolt has received more than $30 billion (about 191.1 billion yuan) of battery orders from major well-known car companies, and the first customers include Volkswagen, BMW, Volvo, Renault Fluence, Scania and Polestar.
In the coming years, the capacity of the Ett Gigafactory will be increased to 60 GWh per year to guarantee the delivery of orders. Northvolt plans to achieve a total battery capacity of about 150 GWh by 2030 and a 20 to 25 percent market share in Europe, equivalent to 2 million Tesla vehicle batteries. In addition, Northvolt plans to introduce batteries of different specifications to meet the needs of customers in the automotive, industrial and energy storage sectors.
The Ett Gigafactory in northern Sweden
Since Europe launched the world's strictest carbon emission regulations in 2020, the European new energy vehicle market has remained high, and the demand for power batteries is also growing. According to schmidt Automotive Research, from January to October 2021, the total sales of new energy vehicles in Europe reached 1.76 million units, an increase of 91.38% year-on-year, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 13%.
Although the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in Europe ranks first in the world, most of the world's electric vehicle batteries are currently produced in the United States and Asia, and the world's top ten battery manufacturers are located in Asia. The latest data released by SNE Research, a South Korean market research firm, shows that Chinese companies are leading the growth of the electric vehicle battery market. From January to November this year, CATL ranked first in the world with a market share of 31.8%, 10 percentage points higher than the second place LG Chem. Therefore, if Northvolt wants to grab market share in Europe, it needs to face strong competitors such as Asian battery leader Catalpa Anderson and LG Chem.
Source: SNE Research
"Today is an important milestone for Northvolt, and the team has been working hard to achieve this. Of course, this is just the beginning. In the coming years, we expect a significant expansion of Northvolt's Ett Gigafactory to help Europe make the transition to clean energy. Northvolt co-founder and CEO Peter Carlsson said.
Founded in 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, Northvolt is a European lithium battery "unicorn" company founded by Peter Carlsson and Paolo Cerruti, former vice chairmen of Tesla's supply chain management department. In June, Northvolt was valued at $12 billion by investors.
Since its inception, the company has received more than $6.5 billion in financing from ABB, Siemens, Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs and others. The latest round of funding was led by Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen, followed by new investors such as Swedish pension funds AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, Canadian pension fund company OMERS, and previous investors such as Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and investment management company Baillie Gifford also participated in this round. Among them, Baillie Gifford is also a shareholder of Tesla, the world's leader in new energy vehicles.
According to Insider's internal executives in October, the company plans to invest $750 million to expand its lab in Sweden. Northvolt will create a "toolbox" that covers the entire supply chain related to the design, development and lifecycle of lithium-ion batteries – from active material and battery design to battery systems and recycling.
In November, Northvolt announced that its Revolve recycling program had produced the first 100 percent recycled nickel, manganese and cobalt batteries. Meanwhile, Northvolt has developed Revolt Ett, Europe's largest gigabit-class battery recycling plant near the Ett gigafactory, which can recycle 125,000 tons of batteries per year, equivalent to about 30GWh of battery capacity per year, to achieve the company's goal of collecting 50% of the company's raw materials from recycled batteries by 2030.
In December, Volvo and Northvolt will open an R&D center in Gothenburg as part of a $3.3 billion (about 21 billion) battery development and manufacturing investment project, which will be operational in 2022. During the same period, Northvolt and Portuguese energy company Galp formed a joint venture, Aurora, which will build Europe's largest and most sustainable integrated lithium conversion plant in Portugal, with an estimated annual output of 35,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide.