Northvolt will be the first home-grown European battery company to achieve battery cell production in Europe with the first cells installed at its gig factory “Northvolt One” in northern Sweden.

Northvolt is a battery startup founded by two former Tesla executives who worked at Tesla’s first Gigafactory in Nevada with Panasonic.

The company planned to recreate the “gigafactory” concept of having a giant battery factory that produces in the “gigawatt-hour” level of battery cells for electric cars.

The Swedish startup received investments from several companies, including Volkswagen, to build a massive battery factory in Sweden.

Volkswagen’s investment also came with the opportunity to create a 50/50 joint venture starting to build another battery factory to supply the car manufacturer.

Northvolt is fast becoming a key partner for Volkswagen and some other European car manufacturers to secure the long-term battery supply.

For Volkswagen, this long-term supply will enable the company’s electrical transition since the carmaker ordered $ 14 billion worth of batteries from Northvolt earlier this year.

Today, Northvolt announced that “Northvolt Ett”, its first gig factory in northern Sweden, has produced its very first cell (pictured above):

“The first cell in Northvolt One represents a milestone that Northvolt has been working on since the gig factory was announced in 2017. The cell is of a prismatic cell format and came from the cell band on December 28. The commissioning and scaling up of the plant will continue until 2022, when they first commercial customer deliveries will be made. “

Peter Carlsson, CEO and co-founder of Northvolt, commented on the announcement:

“Today is a major milestone for Northvolt that the team has worked very hard to achieve. Of course, this first cell is just the beginning. In the coming years, we look forward to Northvolt One expanding its production capacity significantly to enable the European transition to clean energy. ”

Now with the official start of production, Northvolt aims to gradually increase production to 60 GWh per year on Northvolt One.

The plant already has over $ 30 billion in contracts to supply cells to “BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.”

The first commercial deliveries are expected to start next year.

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