Swedish cell manufacturer Northvolt is in bullish mood. Vice president of communications and public affairs Anders Thor talks to Andrew Draper.

BEST: There’s a lot of public and private investment in Northvolt. What measures are you taking to ensure you don’t fail?

Thor: We’ve raised roughly $15 billion: $8 billion in equity and $6 billion in debt, plus $1 billion in grants (excluding grants in the pipeline). I don’t really understand the question about ‘not failing’. Isn’t that basically everything we do as a company?

But if we should list briefly measures we’re taking to succeed, one could note that we work very closely with our customers in development and design of cells, creating a product that not only has a 60–70% lower carbon footprint than our competitors, but is specifically designed for the vehicle or system it’s going in to. This has led to over $50 billion in customer orders.

What has been built through these heavy investments is an entire production platform, from R&D, customer programmes and industrialisation to mass production. That’s something many of our competitors have built over a longer period of time and at much greater cost. This platform, and the key lessons from our ramp-up of both Northvolt Labs and Northvolt Ett, are the foundation that will enable our swift scaling-up in both Europe and North America in the years ahead.

In the next few years, we will continue this heavy investment, expansion and ramp-up phase in close collaboration with our customers and partners. We will execute a large order book that is expected to grow further. These investments into a vertically integrated production model will not only allow us to reach the same margins as other cell makers in the industry in the long-term, but enable a slightly higher profitability with additional earnings from our in-house cathode material production, battery systems development and recycling.

Our position as the fastest growing battery producer in the Western world, with a massive and continuously increasing demand for regionally produced battery cells and systems with a minimal carbon footprint has also attracted new commitments from existing and new top-tier global investors such as Blackrock and CDPQ during 2023.

BEST: Is $15 billion enough? Where are you at with an IPO?

Thor: With the size and ambition of our expansion, it would be natural at a future stage to tap into public markets. We are prepared for that, but are in no rush since we’re experiencing large interest from private investors.

BEST: What challenges are you facing and how are you dealing with them? There was a legal challenge in Quebec, two deaths in Skellefteå, and what about sourcing raw materials like nickel and cobalt in an ESG-compliant manner?

Thor: The legal challenge in Quebec was dismissed and in local polling a large majority of the local communities were positive about the project – and we naturally intend to comply with all local environmental policies, as we have done in Sweden. A country that has some of the strictest environmental laws in the world.
Massive projects like the construction and ramp-up of a gigafactory with millions of work-hours always comes with risk. We have therefore invested heavily in safety design and training. Despite that, we were mortified to see two tragic accidents in a year, one involving our own employee and another one involving an employee at a construction company. These have led to even further safety work, training and development of procedures, which will continue to progress over the years.

Sourcing has been a major part of Northvolt’s development since day one. We’ve set out to try to find partners with integrated processes from mine to refinery to increase traceability, and who are also willing to develop their sustainability procedures together with us. We’ve found good sources in the European Union, Canada, Australia and Madagascar – but are also open to sourcing from the DRC if we find a long-term partner willing to develop their procedures.

BEST: what do you say to the Amnesty International report from September 2023 that people are being forced out of their homes and farmland to make way for the expansion of large-scale mining projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with little regard for their rights or national laws? Are you at risk of being complicit in human rights abuses?

Thor: It might sound illogical, but reports like these are actually part of the reason why we’re engaging more in the DRC. But let me explain: First and foremost there’s no way around DRC if you’re a company producing NMC batteries. Even if you don’t source from the country, you impact the market – and if you are reliant on recycling like we are, there’s guaranteed to be cobalt from DRC in those used batteries you bring in.

Secondly, the breaches of human rights in the mining industry in the DRC has led NGOs and human rights activists to call upon socially responsible companies to engage more in country. They don’t want to shut down the mining industry, since so many livelihoods depend on it, but rather have companies like Northvolt engage directly with miners and demand respect for modern social and environmental standards.

So, that is what we aim to do. We have not found a long-term partner yet, but our goal is to find mines that are willing to improve and set new standards, and work together with NGOs to make sure that we’re not used for greenwashing, but rather have a positive impact, also on local communities.

BEST: What other challenges?

Thor: If you were to pinpoint one major challenge it should be competence. We’ve grown from 20 to 6,000 people in just 7–8 years, and are currently hiring 100–150 people per month to continue our expansion – in regions that have not had advanced battery production before. It means we need to headhunt all over the world, re-skill and upskill our own staff, and have extremely efficient recruitment and onboarding procedures. We handle roughly 10,000 applications per month, and need to find the best of the best and get them quickly settled in to new cities and workplaces. That’s an enormous and very stimulating challenge.

BEST: What’s the process for fitting out your plants, how do you select equipment suppliers?

Thor: Since battery production has expanded primarily in Japan, South Korea and China, a lot of our closest partners on the equipment side are Asian, but we’re also seeing an increased interest and progress among European and North American suppliers. This development will be in a continuous cooperation between East and West, and Northvolt is in the very midst of that development, also being lucky to secure extremely qualified Asian battery competence very early on in the company’s development.

BEST: How do you do R&D, what projects are on the go?

Thor: That’s a very broad question – overall we have three major paths to cell development:

1. Our main focus is developing premium quality lithium-ion cells with a very low carbon footprint for automotive customers such as Volkswagen Group, BMW, Scania and Volvo Cars. These have been developed through joint R&D and design. With Volvo Cars we even have a shared R&D department as part of our Novo Energy JV.
2. The second focus is high performance, high energy lithium-ion cells, through a technology developed by our subsidiary Cuberg on the US west coast. They’re more expensive cells – but enable usage in high performance vehicles, including aviation.
3. Thirdly, we recently launched sodium-ion from stealth mode. We’ve been able to create cells reaching 160Wh/kg, not only best in class among sodium-ion cells and challenging LFP technology but, through the use of a unique Prussian White cathode, also free from lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. These can make up very cost effective, heat resistant and sustainable battery systems for energy storage. And with future development, they can become part of very affordable electric mobility.

On top of this, we invest heavily in R&D to further reduce the carbon footprint of the cell and increase recycling capabilities, developing our own, globally leading hydrometallurgical recycling process on a massive scale.

We’re also utilising AI and machine learning more and more in our research, with pretty good results so far.

Overview of Northvolt projects

Research and development of new cell technologies.

• Northvolt Labs, Västerås, Sweden: R&D and industrialisation. Over 600 employees develop lithium-ion, sodium-ion, recycling etc. Online since 2019, first commercial delivery 2020.
• Northvolt Cuberg, San Leandro, US: R&D and industrialisation of lithium-metal batteries. Over 200 employees developing lithium-metal cells. Purchased in 2020 and scaled since.

Active material and cell production on a giga scale:

• Northvolt Ett, Skellefteå, Sweden. The first 16GWh is installed, in commissioning and ramp-up, and will be expanded to 60GWh. Northvolt employ 3,000 people working on active material and cells. The first cell was made in 2021 and commercial deliveries began in in 2022.
• Northvolt Drei, Heide, Germany. Gigafactory construction just started. Planned maximum cell production capacity of 60Gwh. Operation scheduled for 2026.
• Novo, Gothenburg, Sweden. Joint venture with Volvo Cars. Planned gigafactory site. Construction started this year. Planned maximum capacity is 50Gwh (cell production only). Expected to be operational in 2025.
• Northvolt Fem, Borlänge, Sweden: Planned site for cathode active material production, site under preparation.
• Northvolt Six, Montreal, Canada: Gigafactory site being prepared. Planned maximum capacity of 60Gwh, both active material and cells. Operations planned for 2026.

Most customers buy cells only so they can build their own battery systems. But for customers wanting the full system:

• Northvolt Dwa, Gdansk, Poland. Currently ramping up production of battery systems to a planned maximum capacity of 12GWh. Production in Poland started in 2019, in a smaller facility with some 300 employees.

In terms of recycling, Revolt Ett is now opening up next to Northvolt Ett in Skellefteå, and will be Europe’s largest recycling facility for lithium-ion batteries. Northvolt already has the smaller Hydrovolt facility up and running in Fredrikstad outside Oslo. It is a JV between Northvolt and Norsk Hydro.