Northvolt has raised an additional $600 million (€512 million) in a private placement to expand its lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity, R&D facility and launch a "giga-scale" recycling effort.
Multiple new institutional and private investors participated in the latest round (Baillie Gifford, Baron Capital Group, Bridford Investments Limited, Norrsken VC & PCS Holding, private investors Cristina Stenbeck and Daniel Ek), along current shareholders (Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division, IMAS Foundation, Scania and Volkswagen AG)
Northvolt's long-term goals include gradual expansion of the lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing capacity to 150 GWh by 2030 (an estimated 25% share of the market at that time).
The latest private placement will be used in three areas:
- increasing manufacturing capacity (cells and systems)
- expanding the Northvolt Labs Campus (R&D) - it's expected "to double in size over the coming years in terms of investment and footprint"
- establishing a giga-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility next to the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in Sweden.
The initial target is for 4 GWh annually, which will make it the largest site in the world. Moreover, it will be the only large-scale facility in Europe to recycle lithium on top of cobalt, nickel, manganese and other metals
According to the press release, Northvolt is building two battery plants:
- Northvolt Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, Sweden (under construction) - with a potential annual output of 40 GWh, scheduled for start of production in 2021.
- Northvolt Zwei in Salzgitter, Germany (JV with Volkswagen) (the permitting process is underway) - 16 GWh annually (could be increased to 24 GWh later)
Besides Volkswagen and its Scania truck subsidiary, Northvolt will supply battery cells also for BMW. There are plenty of other customers signed in, although VW and BMW so far seem to be the biggest.
More about Northvolt
Peter Carlsson, co-founder and CEO of Northvolt, commented:
“We are in the middle of a race to establish manufacturing capacity in Europe, and I believe the companies that are best at attracting talent and capital, while scaling their blueprints the fastest, will be the most successful. With these world-class partners behind us, we have created a solid foundation to go on and execute our plans to enable large-scale manufacturing of green batteries in Europe.”
