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Swedish start-up Northvolt announced on Wednesday (June 12th) that it has secured funding, largely from Volkswagen, for Europe's largest car battery factory, to compete with US-based Gigafactory Tesla electric cars.
The battery producer has announced a $ 1 billion fundraising drive, led by Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs, alongside BMW, the Swedish pension fund AMF, the insurer Folksam and the IMAS foundation, belonging to the IKEA group.
"This is an important step for Northvolt, it is also a key moment for Europe, which clearly shows that we are ready to face the next wave of electrification," said Peter Carlsson, CEO of Northvolt, in a statement.
The company did not specify the amount of capital provided by the various investors and added that the transaction had to be approved by the Swedish Competition Authority.
According to a separate statement from Volkswagen, the German automaker would buy 20% of Northvolt's capital and have a seat on its board of directors.
In 2017, Northvolt announced its intention to establish a Northvolt Ett Battery Plant, which will employ between 2,000 and 2,500 people and will be located in Skelleftea, a coastal city in northeastern Sweden.
The European Investment Bank has given its agreement in principle for a € 350 million loan to Northvolt in May this year, and added that, alongside the additional funds raised, the company said: "the establishment of from the initial production of 16GWh of lithium-ion battery cells Northvolt Ett's capacity is activated. "
Construction is expected to begin in August and large-scale production is expected to begin in 2021.
Northvolt also announced plans to establish a joint venture with Volkswagen to build another battery plant in Salzgitter, Germany.
In May, Volkswagen had already announced its intention to spend nearly a billion euros for the construction of a battery cell factory in Salzgitter.
Politicians and some businessmen consider that the production of cells constituting batteries of electric vehicles is essential to maintaining Europe's competitiveness in the automotive industry.
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has pledged EUR 1 billion in public aid to consortia considering plans to build cells in Germany and in the wider European Union. , while France has offered 700 million euros.
Volkswagen and Northvolt are members of a research consortium of this type covering seven EU countries.
But Asian companies, which have a head start in battery technology, are already preparing to provide an expected increase in electric vehicles from European factories.
CATL in China, which plans to build a battery plant in Erfurt, in eastern Germany, to compete with the Tesla production site, is a major example.
"Europe will have at least ten gigafactories," says the head of the battery
Peter Carlsson, CEO of Northvolt, wants to build the largest battery cell factory in Europe, in the heart of the Swedish countryside. In an interview, he explained how it should work and gave his opinion on the offensive of his new Volkswagen partner in the field of electromobility.
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