- Volvo Car Group and Northvolt plan to set up research and development centre in Sweden

- Volvo Cars plans to sell only fully electric cars by 2030

Volvo Car Group has announced its plans to enter into a joint venture agreement with a Swedish battery company, Northvolt, to develop and produce sustainable batteries. The partnership will help in the development of the next generation of pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars. The research and development centre will be set up in Sweden and will begin operations in 2022. This centre will be used in the development of next-generation, state-of-art battery cells and vehicle integration technologies.

The planned joint venture will also establish a new Gigafactory in Europe with a potential capacity of up to 50 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year. The production is scheduled to start in 2026. As part of the plans, Volvo Car Group also looks to source 15 GWh of battery cells per year from the existing Northvolt Ett battery plant in Skelleftea, Sweden, starting in 2024. In addition to previously announced battery supply agreements, the partnership with Northvolt will secure European battery cell needs that drive Volvo Cars’ ambitious electrification plans. By the middle of this decade, Volvo Cars aim to sell 50 per cent pure electric cars, and by 2030 expects to sell only fully electric cars.

The new Gigafactory is planned to be powered by 100 per cent clean energy and is expected to employ around 3,000 people. The location of the new plant is yet to be decided. The first car to feature battery cells developed through the joint venture will be the electric successor to Volvo Cars’ best-selling XC60 model. The partnership will help in reducing the environmental footprint attributable to battery sourcing and the production of future cars. As for Polestar, the partnership will give a further boost to the company’s European growth ambitions. Additionally, it underlines the company’s commitment to the Polestar 0 project, which aims to create a truly climate-neutral vehicle by 2030.

Volvo Cars will reveal more details on its future technology roadmap at the Volvo Cars Tech Moment, to be held on 30 June.