Northvolt announced that the commissioning of the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, northern Sweden led to the assembly of the very first battery cell on December 28, 2021. Not bad, considering that the start-up was launched in 2017.
The company was previously producing at a small scale (since 2020) only at its Northvolt Labs site in Västerås, Sweden.
The first cell happens to be a prismatic cell format, while the battery chemistry has not been disclosed (it might be nickel-manganese-cobalt aka NMC). In the coming months, the Northvolt Ett probably will start series production, as commercial deliveries are expected to start in 2022.
The company underlines the importance of in-house battery cell production for the European market:
"Marking a new chapter in European industrial history, the cell is the first to have been fully designed, developed and assembled at a gigafactory by a homegrown European battery company."
"The first cell of Northvolt Ett represents a milestone which Northvolt has been working towards since the gigafactory was announced in 2017. The cell is of a prismatic cell format and came off the cell assembly line on the 28th of December. Commissioning and upscaling of the factory will continue through into 2022, when the first commercial customer deliveries will be made."
Northvolt Ett - 60 GWh/year target
The Northvolt Ett gigafactory is set to produce up to 60 GWh of lithium-ion battery cells at some point in the future.
Northvolt says that it has over $30 billion worth of contracts (for varying battery cell formats). The list of customers include BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.
"To these customers in the automotive, industrial and energy storage sectors, Northvolt Ett will deliver cells of varying formats with commercial deliveries beginning in 2022."
Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Northvolt, said:
“Today is a great milestone for Northvolt which the team has worked very hard to achieve. Of course, this first cell is only the beginning. Over the course of the coming years, we look forward to Northvolt Ett expanding its production capacity greatly to enable the European transition to clean energy.”
See also