Northvolt

Northvolt AB is a Swedish company founded in 2015, working with battery development and manufacturing. It is specifically specialized in lithium ion technology for Electric vehicles. It is building a factory in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, and another one in Salzgitter, Germany. Its headquarters for research and development is in Västerås, Sweden.[1]

Construction of the first factory in Skellefteå, January 2020.

The company has received large loans from the European Investment Bank and other actors, and received funds from companies such as Volkswagen and BMW.

History

The company was founded in 2015 by Peter Carlsson,[2] then under the name SGF Energy.[3] In 2017, it changed name to Northvolt.[4] When the company was founded, it was founded with the aim to supply the automotive industry with electric vehicle batteries.[2][5] In May 2019, the European Investment Bank offered a loan of 3,5 billion SEK (about 350 million Euros).[2] Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner for Energy at the time, said that "I welcome the significant support proposed by the EIB to Northvolt gigafactory as a stepping-stone towards building a competitive, sustainable and innovative value chain, with battery cells manufactured at scale, here, in Europe."[3]

In June of the same year, companies such as BMW, Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs and Folksam declared that they would contribute with finances. In total, the investments amounted to 1 billion US dollars, framed as a way to challenge what was reported as the dominance of Tesla, Inc. and Asian companies such as Toyota and Nissan on the market for electric vehicle batteries.[6] The company started building a battery factory in Skellefteå, Sweden, with the aim to start production of electric vehicle batteries in 2020.[2] In 2019, Volkswagen and Northvolt announced that a second factory would be built in Salzgitter, Germany, aiming to start production in 2023–2024. The aim was to start production at 16 GWh, and increase it to 24 GWh. In May 2020, Volkswagen announced that it would build the factory largely on its own, and invest 450 million euros in the construction.[2] On 16 July 2020, it was announced that Northvolt and BMW had signed a deal of 2 billion euros, for Northvolt to deliver batteries starting from 2024.[7]

On 30 July 2020, a 350 million euro loan was issued to Northvolt by the European Investment Bank; EURACTIV stated in an article that "Northvolt is quickly building a reputation as the EU’s go-to company for home-grown batteries."[5] On the same day, it was announced that Northvolt had been issued loans amounting to 1,6 billion US dollar from a consortium of commercial banks, pension funds and other financial institutions.[1]

The opening of a factory in Skellefteå was said to potentially transform subarctic Sweden, and dramatically change the city of Skellefteå. It was however said that it could be a potential risk with shortage of qualified labor in the region.[8]

gollark: Yep!
gollark: You all underestimated me. But I'm *actually* quite good occasionally.
gollark: 13 was baidicoot, yes.
gollark: Congratulations, please give me 86 kilobees for this.
gollark: Oh, neat.

References
  1. TT (2 July 2020). "Miljardlån till Northvolt". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  2. Teknik, TT / Ny. "Klart: Northvolt börjar bygga i augusti". Ny Teknik (in Swedish). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  3. "Grönt ljus för miljardladdat Northvolt". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  4. "About". Northvolt. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  5. Kreslova, Evgeniia (1 March 2019). "The world's greenest battery". investEU – European Commission. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  6. Milne, Richard (12 June 2019). "VW and Goldman lead $1bn investment in Swedish battery project". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  7. Brändström, Maria (1 July 2020). "Northvolt tecknar miljardavtal med biljätte". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  8. Duxbury, Charlie (2 August 2019). "Battery venture could transform sub-Arctic Sweden". POLITICO. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
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