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‘Europe’s largest battery factory’ approved

Northvolt, a company founded by two former Tesla executives who broke out on their own to build a battery factory in Europe, seems to be in full motion.
Posted on 13 February, 2018
‘Europe’s largest battery factory’ approved

On Monday, Northvolt secured a NZ$89.1 million loan from the European Union's investment bank to build a demonstration battery line for its own battery factory. “The EIB’s board of directors last Tuesday approved €52.5 million in financing alongside the Swedish government for the Northvolt battery production project,” said EIB Vice President Andrew McDowell. It’s the first step towards building the largest lithium-ion battery factory in Europe. Ambroise Fayolle, vice-president of the EIB, commented: “The Bank is fulfilling one of its main purposes by supporting this type of research and development in Europe. With the growing momentum of clean energy and electric mobility, batteries will become ever more important. Europe is currently lagging behind when it comes to battery manufacturing and this highly innovative and strategic project deserves European backing to fill that gap.” “Europe is moving rapidly towards electrification,” says Peter Carlsson, CEO of Northvolt. “Northvolt’s objective is to build the world’s greenest battery to enable the transition. With the support from the European Investment Bank and the European Union, we are now one step closer to establishing a competitive European battery manufacturing value chain.” The high costs of batteries means electric cars are still only a niche product, but regulatory action to reduce emissions combined with incentives to make electric cars more affordable has spurred significant investment. Once the factory is completed, it will be Europe's largest battery factory and produce 32 GWh worth of battery capacity annually.