Volkswagen is investing an additional €500 million in Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt. This means Wolfsburg is co-financing the planned expansion of the battery factory in Sweden, which should increase to a production capacity of 60 GWh per year.
Northvolt and Volkswagen are no strangers to each other. Volkswagen already invested €900 million in Northvolt in 2019, giving the Germans 20 percent of the shares and a seat on the Board of Directors. So now there is another half a billion on top of that. With the additional funding, Northvolt plans to expand production capacity at its Swedish plant from 40 GWh to 60 GWh, and use the money for battery recycling and research and development. From 2023, Volkswagen’s ‘premium cells’ will be produced in Sweden. These are presumably intended for the PPE platform. Step by step, Volkswagen will eventually be allocated 40 GWh of Northvolt’s total production capacity.
This extra production capacity is of great importance to VW. In the coming years, the ID family will expand. In addition to the battery factory in Sweden, Volkswagen is also working on a second location in Salzgitter, Germany. That factory will produce batteries for the lower-positioned models from 2025, also with a capacity of 40 GWh. Wolfsburg aims to have six battery plants in Europe by 2030. The car manufacturer is currently looking for locations and partners for this.