Germany lays first stone Northvolt Drei EV-battery gigafactory

Germany is starting to build the country’s largest battery factory for electric vehicles. The project will cost 4.5 billion euros and is led by Sweden’s Northvolt, one of Europe’s newly started companies specializing in the construction and development of batteries for electric cars.

The factory will be built near Heide, a city of more than 22,000 inhabitants in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany. The plant is positioned to produce the ‘cleanest’ batteries for EVs in continental Europe.

With a capacity of up to 60 kWh, it is expected to be operational by 2026, employ about 3,000 people, and have a maximum production capacity of one million batteries annually. As hiring for the Northvolt Drei gigafactory has already begun, recent polls show that 80 percent of local community members favor the project.

Major milestone

The start of the construction of Northvolt Drei in Heide marks a significant milestone for Northvolt and the region. As Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, commented: “Investments such as that of Northvolt are of strategic importance for our country and Europe. […] We need battery cells made in Germany and Europe. It is, therefore, good news for our entire country that, here in the north, battery cells produced in a climate-friendly way will be manufactured for one million cars a year in the future.”

Germany’s leading politicians, Northvolt executives and employees, and representatives of local communities were present to lay the foundation stone and officially start the construction.

Renewable energy

The gigafactory will utilize renewable energy from wind power accessible in the region that hosts Germany’s first wind park, delivering on Northvolt’s mission to mass-produce the world’s greenest batteries for the automotive, industrial, and energy sectors.

Northvolt Drei will also target an on-site battery recycling plant, ensuring efficient reuse of byproducts from the battery production process. Northvolt and world-leading metal recycler EMR has already built a battery recycling facility in the region, namely in Hamburg.

€900 million subsidy

The factory’s location in Germany is partly due to the 900 million euro subsidy from the German government, which was intended to ensure that Northvolt would not move to the United States with the project.

Northvolt was established in 2016 in Stockholm ( Sweden). Pioneering a sustainable battery manufacturing modeling, the company has received over $50 billion in orders from key customers, including BMW, Volvo Cars, and Volkswagen Group.