ABB Partnering With Northvolt To Build “Europe’s Largest Battery Plant” In Sweden
The Switzerland-based engineering giant ABB will be working with Northvolt on that company’s project to build what will reportedly be “Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery production plant.” That battery factory will be in Sweden.
The planned facility is intended to help meet expected market demand for lithium-ion battery cells used in electric vehicles (EVs). As it stands, much of the electric vehicle battery production capacity of the world is situated in South Korean, China, and Japan, while Europe holds a sizable amount of the demand.
The new agreement between ABB and Northvolt will see ABB Technology Ventures (ATV) provide support during the initial development phase with a €10 million investment. In addition, the agreement covers aspects of supply and technology sharing, and also collaboration on research and development efforts. ABB will be providing robotics, automation tech, and electrification solutions.
Reuters provides more: “Former Tesla executive Peter Carlsson’s Northvolt wants the Swedish plant to rival the scale of the US electric carmaker’s Gigafactory in the Nevada desert, targeting annual cell production equivalent to 32 gigawatt-hours by 2023.
“The factory is expected to start production in 2020. A demonstration line will be ready by 2019, ABB said in a statement. … Carlsson told a press conference on Tuesday that between €80 million and €100 million is needed to fund the Swedish factory’s pre-production line. That represents the first tranche of a total $4 billion in fundraising targeted in March.”
“I can’t say exactly when we will announce [more deals], but we are in a number of different parallel discussions,” Carlsson said.
While a final decision on plant location has yet to be announced, Northvolt has reportedly narrowed it down to either Vasteras or Skelleftea. A final decision is expected to be announced by mid-October.
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