Volvo-Northvolt joint venture battery plant expected by 2025, can supply 500,000 EVs per year

Volvo and Swedish battery company Northvolt on Friday announced a new battery plant, near the carmaker’s main assembly plant in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Scheduled to open in 2025, the joint venture will have a “potential” annual battery production capacity of up to 50 gigawatt-hours, enough for 500,000 EVs per year, Volvo said in a press release.

Recharge Volvo XC40 2021

Adrian Clarke, a former Tesla executive previously affiliated with the American automaker’s new plant near Berlin, will run the joint venture, which is scheduled to begin construction in 2023. Between the factory and a jointly operated R&D center at the site, Volvo expects to create 3,000 new jobs.

Volvo says the plant, which will use only renewable energy, will be operated on the principles of a circular economy, with a focus on minimizing waste and reusing materials where possible. The automaker says in 2021 that it will turns its South Carolina assembly plant all-electric before everyone else — even factories in China.

The statement said the Gothenburg battery plant will produce cells “specifically developed for use in next-generation Volvo and Polestar vehicles.” But this plant will be located adjacent to Volvo’s “hometown” factory, which does not build Polestar cars. The spinoff franchise uses a Chinese factory — or starting as early as later this year, a factory in South Carolina.

2022 Recharge Volvo C40

Volvo and Polestar each is developing their own electric motors, but perhaps this means they can share battery cell resources.

The Polestar 2 shares the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform with the Volvo XC40 Recharge, but with a different body style, more emphasis on sporty driving and a more limited production run.

The Rechargeable XC40 was delivered in the United States, and C40 recharge coming soon. Volvo aims for every car it sells to be all-electric by 2030.