Northvolt to Build €4 Billion Battery Gigafactory in Northern Germany

Swedish green battery maker Northvolt has selected the northern German city of Heide in the regional state of Schleswig-Holstein for a new 60 gigawatt plant. “Northvolt Drei” will be the company’s third production facility of this size and the first outside Sweden. It will cost some EUR 4 billion.

“In Heide, we really found a spot where we could combine all our requirements: attracting talent and feeling the support for our aspiration of building the world’s greenest batteries,” said Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson at the press conference, officially announcing the decision. “With the energy mix in Schleswig-Holstein, with the offshore wind coming in, but also with the linkage to Denmark and Norway in the energy feed, we saw that this is probably the best spot for us in Germany to build this set-up.”

“We welcome Northvolt’s decision to come to Heide, which gives the company not only proximity to Europe’s largest automotive market but also access to Germany’s highly skilled work force as well,” says Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) CEO Robert Hermann. “Northvolt is a great addition to the growing battery production landscape here in the heart of Europe.”

Germany is by far and away Europe’s leading EV battery production location with 485 gigawatt hours of capacity in existing and planned facilities, according to business newspaper Handelsblatt. Other major companies that have recently built or planned facilities in Germany include CATL, SVOLT, PSA Group and Tesla.

Northvolt said its decision in favor of Heide had also been influenced by its proximity to the metropolis of Hamburg and the availability of “the space required to establish a battery plant of sufficient size to leverage the economies of scale in production.”

GTAI helped the company find the ideal location for its German expansion.

“Germany Trade & Invest has been working together closely with Northvolt since late 2019 to find a site for the company’s German production facility, and we encouraged them to investigate sites in the north of the country as well as other regions because of the availability of renewable energy on Germany’s coasts,” says GTAI automotive expert Stefan di Bitonto. “Northvolt’s planned gigafactory in Heide is a further indication that the automotive industry in Germany is expanding beyond its traditional strongholds, as mobility is rethought during Germany’s transition to clean energy.”