Volvo, Northvolt break ground on Gothenburg gigafactory

Volvo and Northvolt have started construction on their joint venture gigafactory near Gothenburg, Sweden.

The joint company, which is called Novo Energy, aims to start producing batteries by late 2026 on a footprint that initially will encompass 130,000 square meters (more than 32 acres). The factory is close to Volvo's largest vehicle assembly plant in Torslanda.

When completed the factory will be able to make batteries for about 500,000 cars a year and have a potential annual cell production capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours (GWh).

Novo Energy is led by Adrian Clarke, who joined the joint venture at the start of 2022 after nearly eight years with Tesla.

His last job with the U.S. EV maker was head of engineering, procurement and construction for its gigafactory near Berlin. Clarke oversaw the factory's design from October 2020 until December 2021. This included site development work for Tesla's vehicle factory for the Model Y, according to Clarke's LInkedIn profile.

Volvo aims to be an electric-only brand by 2030 and wants half of its planned 1.2 million global sales to be battery electric by 2025.

Northvolt has secured orders of more than $55 billion to supply electric vehicle batteries to Volvo, BMW and Volkswagen. The firm currently has several factories across Europe, with the latest being a 600 million euro ($632 million) investment to build a plant in Germany, announced in May.

Novo Energy's environmental permit and its building permit for the first phase of the factory were approved this summer, according to a statement from Business Region Goteborg.

"Novo Energy's gigafactory will be a landmark for the green transition. It combines everything – important technology, modern industry and thousands of jobs with good conditions. This makes Gothenburg better," Gothenburg Mayor Jonas Attenius said in the release.

Novo Energy's operation include and R&D center in Lindholmen, Sweden, where engineers are developing next-generation batteries for Volvo and sister brand Polestar.

Purified wastewater will be used to cool the plant, according to the release. Two large pipes, one meter in diameter, are being laid to transport the water from the region's wastewater plant to the gigafactory and back, a distance of 6 km.

Goteborg Energi and Vattenfall are building a power station north of the site to connect the gigafactory to the regional grid's 130 kilovolt power line.

In addition, the city of Gothenburg and the Vastra Gotaland region will invest 45 million crowns (about $4.1. million) to establish a training center for electromobility and battery manufacturing in Lindholmen. The center is schedule to open next autumn.