Categories: Energy / General Market Commentary
Topics: General Energy / General Market Commentary

Elon Musk’s former right-hand man is building a humongous $4 billion battery factory in Sweden

Elon Musk’s former right-hand man is building a humongous $4 billion battery factory in Sweden

Last Fall, Peter Carlsson, former VP of Tesla’s Supply Chain, announced his plans to launch his own "gigafactory" in Sweden, in order to provide cheap, high-quality batteries.


Until yesterday, there were no further details on the project, regarding its name, location or investors.   

But now Carlsson has officially kicked off his dream project, called Northvolt, which aims to cater to the growing demand of electric vehicles and renewable energy storage around the world.


The estimated price tag for the factory; 40 billion Swedish krona (∿$4,5m).


”It may sound like a hefty sum, but you need to remember that it will be spread out over several years, until 2023,” Carlsson Dagens Industri in conjunction with the project launch in Stockholm yesterday.


Another reason for the sizeable sum is Northvolt's plant to take control of the whole supply chain.


“The problem today is that batteries are very expensive. By scaling up the battery production and taking control of the entire [value] chain, from raw material extraction to the finished product, we think we achieve a competitive business model,” said  Paolo Cerruti, COO at Northvolt, formerly Carlsson’s colleague at Tesla, to Di.


Carlsson’s aims to employ 2,600 people in his humongous factory, and in total some 10,000 when counting the suppliers. Northvolt's parent company, SGF Energy, is already hiring for more than a dozen key jobs.


“When fully built, we think our factory building will be bigger than the entire Old Town in Stockholm,” he says.  

The factory’s location hasn’t yet been decided. According to Cerruti, the Swedish location  brings the benefits of clean energy to the very energy-intensive process of producting batteries. Most of today’s major battery factories today are in Asia, where energy is both expensive and dirty.


Moreover, according to Cerruti, up to 60 percent of battery production costs come from raw material; and Northvolt is going to extract its share mostly in Europe, including Finland and Sweden.  


So far, Carlsson has attracted around 120 million SEK ($13m) investment, from Vattenfall, Vinnova, Stena, EU and the Swedish Energy Agency. 


Moreover, the Swedish financier Harald Mix has recently bought a major stake in Northvolt through his investment company Vargas, according to Breakit. 

To continue reading please click link http://nordic.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-former-right-hand-man-is-opening-a-$4billion-battery-factory-in-sweden-2017-3/