Northvolt and Scania unveil green battery capable of powering trucks for 1.5 million kilometers

Today, Northvolt and Scania unveiled a jointly developed battery cell for heavy electric vehicles. In validation tests, the lithium-ion cell has demonstrated an outstanding lifetime resulting in the capacity to power trucks for 1.5 million kilometers – equivalent to the truck's whole lifetime. Produced with fossil-free electricity in northern Sweden, the cell’s carbon footprint is approximately one-third that of a comparative industry reference. 

In 2017, sustainability frontrunners Scania and Northvolt joined forces to develop and commercialize a world-leading battery cell for heavy commercial vehicles. Now the partnership and its close collaboration have come to fruition as the cell is being produced at Northvolt Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden. In addition, later this year, Scania will inaugurate a new battery factory in Södertälje, Sweden, where battery cells will be assembled into battery packs for the start of production of heavy-duty electric trucks.

Premium requirement met and exceeded

Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Northvolt, comments: “At the outset of this partnership, Northvolt and Scania agreed to an ambitious timeline for the development of a high-performance battery cell which would enable their plans for electrifying heavy transport. To have proceeded through extensive development and validation phases, and now be delivering cells from Northvolt Ett which exceed our initial expectations in terms of performance is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved.”

Scania’s CEO Christian Levin says: “Today marks a milestone on the path towards a sustainable transport system. The future of heavy transport is electric, and to enable the shift and to continue delivering on our brand promise towards customers to be premium, Scania needs top-performing battery cells for our electric trucks.”

“As the development of the battery cell started, we targeted high performance, low operating costs and long lifetime. We decided on a requirement for the cell to enable a 1.5 million kilometers long lifetime for a heavy-duty Scania vehicle. The tests show that this requirement can not only be met, but also exceeded,” says Christian Levin.

Low carbon footprint

As part of the company’s commitment to establishing a supply of sustainable cells, Northvolt Ett is powered by 100% fossil-free electricity generated by hydro power and wind power. Due to the fossil-free energy and integration of additional sustainable production features at Northvolt Ett, the estimated carbon footprint of the cell at full serial production is approximately one-third that of a comparative industry reference cell (IVL 2019 lithium-ion NMC 111 cell)*.

“Northvolt’s mission to build the world’s greenest batteries matches Scania’s purpose to drive the shift towards sustainable transport perfectly. I’m truly looking forward to putting the final puzzle pieces together ahead of the take-off of premium electric vehicles later this year,” says Christian Levin.

Cell specifications

Cell format: Prismatic

Capacity: 157 Ah

Nominal voltage: 3.6 V

Lifetime: 1.5 million kilometers in heavy-duty commercial transportation

*Carbon footprint: Cradle-to-gate climate change impact calculation was prepared in the manner proposed by EU legislation using the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) EF2.0 database, to provide a projection of cell footprints from Northvolt Ett in full serial production.

About Northvolt

Northvolt is a European supplier of sustainable, high-quality battery cells and systems. Founded in 2016 to enable the European transition to a decarbonized future, the company has made swift progress on its mission to deliver the world’s greenest lithium-ion battery with a minimal CO2 footprint and has grown to over 4,500 people from over 110 different nationalities. Northvolt has to date secured more than $55 billion worth of contracts from key customers, including BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar, to support its plans, which include establishing recycling capabilities to enable 50 percent of all its raw material requirements to be sourced from recycled batteries by 2030.