Swedish battery start-up Northvolt introduced that it’s going to set up a completely built-in lithium-ion battery gigafactory in Canada.
The primary North American manufacturing unit – named Northvolt Six – shall be situated in McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand simply exterior the town of Montréal, within the Canadian province of Quebec.
In accordance with Northvolt, the plant will host 60 gigawatt-hours of annual cell manufacturing capability, with adjoining amenities for cathode lively materials manufacturing and battery recycling, enabling absolutely round manufacturing on the website.
The variety of 60 GWh is a long-term goal for the mission. The primary part shall be 30 GWh and is because of start earlier than the top of 2023. The manufacturing unit is anticipated to start operations in 2026, so inside about three years from now.
The corporate estimates that the preliminary part of cathode and cell manufacturing, coupled with recycling, would require a complete funding of $5 billion (7 billion CAD). As much as 3,000 individuals will discover a job on the manufacturing unit.
Northvolt Six battery manufacturing unit in Canada (render)
Northvolt provides that the collection of the 170-hectare website for Northvolt Six was made after an intensive assessment of areas in North America. It was the most suitable choice after contemplating a number of standards.
Robust factors of the location, as Northvolt explains, had been Quebec hydroelectricity, which ensures cell manufacturing from one hundred pc renewable power, in addition to the automotive worth chain within the space. On prime of that, the Authorities of Canada and the Authorities of Quebec strongly supported the mission, which is promised to turn into the biggest non-public funding in Quebec’s historical past.
It is a fairly large bounce for Northvolt, an organization based simply seven years in the past, which at present produces EV battery cells in Sweden (for quite a lot of producers of vehicles and vans). The corporate has additionally a battery power storage plant in Poland and a number of other different tasks available in a number of international locations. There’s a plan to construct a 60-GWh manufacturing unit in Germany, however it appears that evidently this mission is likely to be delayed.
Northvolt doesn’t reveal which EV producers will purchase battery cells from the Canadian crops or the battery chemistry/cell kind issue.