Northvolt bags $12M in more investment from its Japanese supplier, SoftEnergy Controls

Northvolt, a Swedish-based company aiming to develop the largest electric battery factory in Europe, announced getting into a strategic agreement with Japanese battery production equipment manufacturer SECI (SoftEnergy Controls).

Part of the deal involves a capital investment of SEK 100M ($11.5M). The announcement was made as Nothvolt started the construction on the first phase of its planned battery gigafactory in Västerås. The location will serve as a research facility used to develop, test and industrialize lithium-ion battery cells before large-scale production.

It will have a production capacity of 125 MWh per year, which they will then expand for the battery gigafactory. The factory is expected to start production in 2020 with a target capacity of 8 GWh per year and they will aim for 32 GWh of capacity once the entire factory will be completed in 2023.

Northvolt, founded by CEO Peter Carlsson, is building a next generation battery factory with the aim to produce the world’s greenest batteries to enable and accelerate the transition to renewable energy. Its ambition is to build the biggest li-ion battery factory in Europe and comparable in size to the first phase of Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.

The company has raised $50M from investors including strategic ones such as big corporations ABB, Vesta and Scania.