VW and Goldman Sachs-backed Northvolt plans German gigafactory

VW and Goldman Sachs-backed Northvolt plans German gigafactory

Northvolt said Tuesday it would look to build a gigafactory in Germany, with the firm hoping the facility's first batteries will be produced in 2025. In a statement, the Stockholm-headquartered battery maker said the Northvolt Drei plant would be located in Heide, northern Germany, and provide lithium-ion batteries for the European market. Northvolt said the plant's "potential production capacity" was slated to be 60 gigawatt hours per year, which would be "sufficient for some one million electric vehicles." The firm said Northvolt Drei — "drei" is three in German — would be its third gigafactory. Gigafactories are facilities that produce batteries for electric vehicles on a large scale. CEO Elon Musk has been widely credited as coining the term. Northvolt said the location of the factory in the state of Schleswig-Holstein would enable it to tap into the area's energy grid. It described the grid as being "characterized by a surplus of electricity generated by onshore and offshore wind power and reinforced by clean energy provided through grid interconnections to Denmark and Norway." Northvolt was founded in 2016 and has attracted investment from and , among others. "It matters how we produce a battery cell," Peter Carlsson, Northvolt's CEO, said