Northvolt wins battery order from Volkswagen

On March 17, foreign media reported that Volkswagen has officially reached a cooperation agreement with Northvolt, a battery start-up company from Sweden. The two parties will jointly sign a 10-year supply contract with a total order value of more than 14 billion U.S. dollars ( Approximately RMB 91.1 billion). As part of the agreement, Northvolt also needs to sell shares in the German Salzgitter battery factory, a joint venture with Volkswagen in the early years, to Volkswagen, which means that the Volkswagen Group will be able to acquire this battery factory in the near future. It is worth mentioning that, as an additional condition, Volkswagen requested a seat on Northvolt's board of directors. Northvolt said in a statement, 'By integrating battery production into the NorthvoltEtt super factory, partners will achieve further economies of scale, thereby ensuring the best costs and reducing the negative impact of the battery production process on the environment.' It shows that Northvolt is a battery start-up company founded by two former Tesla executives. The company has received investment from many companies including Volkswagen and currently has a cooperative relationship with Panasonic, Tesla Gigafactory1 in Nevada. . As early as 2019, Volkswagen established a cooperative relationship with Northvolt. Volkswagen hopes that Northvolt can play a key role in Europe and compete with Asian battery companies such as CATL and LG Chem. The goal is to have a 25% market share in the European market by 2030. The company said it has obtained more than $27 billion worth of contracts from major customers.