1970-01-01 00:00:00
The Swedish electric battery group Northvolt confirmed on Friday the installation of a giant electric battery factory in Germany, following several months of uncertainty due to energy prices in Europe and the American climate plan.
“Northvolt has decided to take the next steps in its expansion to Heide”, the site chosen in northern Germany, said Peter Carlsson, the company’s CEO, in a statement issued with the German government which promises a financial support for the project.
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This federal aid – not quantified and which must still be subject to “the approval of the European Commission” – will “unlock this project worth several billion euros”, the production of which will begin in 2026, welcomed Berlin.
One million electric vehicles per year
Northvolt announced in March 2022 the construction, in Heide in the Schleswig-Holstein region, a few kilometers from the North Sea coast, of a huge battery factory capable of supplying one million electric vehicles per year, the first of the group outside of Sweden.
The Swedish group is one of Europe’s greatest hopes for batteries as the Old Continent seeks to catch up on this production essential to the transition of the automotive industry
But the German project was in uncertainty following a statement last October from Peter Carlsson, believing that the investment “might be postponed” due to rising energy prices in Europe, and competition from the climate plan american for green industry.
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At least 3000 direct jobs
A sign of the attractiveness of North America for industrialists, Northvolt announced on Friday that it plans to build a factory in North America, in parallel with the German site. A decision will be made “in the coming months,” a spokeswoman for the group told AFP.
After “more than a year” of negotiations, “Germany can look forward, with one of the flagship projects of the transition of energy and transport”, welcomed Friday the Minister of the Economy Robert Habeck. The factory promises to create at least 3,000 direct jobs.
This confirmation comes a few hours following the announcement of the Taiwanese group ProLogium of the opening of its first factory in Europe in Dunkirk, in the North of France, with an investment of 5.2 billion euros for an annual capacity of 48 GWh. Even if it has seen factory projects flourish on its soil in recent months, Europe is lagging behind China and the United States in the production of batteries.
Competition with the United States and the hunt for subsidies have increased since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies which provide colossal tax credits for green industry and the energy transition.
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