Northvolt produces first lithium-ion battery in Sweden

Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The Swedish battery company Northvolt said Wednesday it has produced its first lithium-ion battery, in an effort to rival battery leaders like Tesla in the United States and others in Asia.

Northvolt officials said the battery was the first fully designed, developed and assembled at its "gigafactory" in Skelleftea, Sweden. The battery factory was valued in June by investors at $12 billion and employs more than 500 workers.

"Today is a great milestone for Northvolt, which the team has worked very hard to achieve," Peter Carlsson, CEO and co-founder of Northvolt said in a statement.

"Of course, this first cell is only the beginning. Over the course of the coming years, we look forward to Northvolt Ett expanding its production capacity greatly to enable the European transition to clean energy."

The factory, which measures its output in gigawatt hours rather than battery units, said it plans to have an annual output of 60-gigawatt hours. Northvolt said the output would allow it to fulfill more than $30 billion in contracts with partners like BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.

"To these customers in the automotive, industrial and energy storage sectors, Northvolt Ett will deliver cells of varying formats with commercial deliveries beginning in 2022," the company said.