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With the rapid development of the global electric vehicle field, more and more car companies have increased their investment in power batteries. Recently, Volvo has exposed its latest battery plan. Swedish carmaker Volvo, which is controlled by Geely, has announced that it and battery maker Northvolt will jointly build a new power battery factory in Gothenburg, Sweden, according to media reports. The new plant will be built in 2023 and is expected to begin operation in 2026, when it will provide 3000 jobs. In addition, when completed, the plant will focus on developing state-of-the-art batteries for the next generation of all-electric Volvo and Polar Star cars, with a potential battery capacity of up to 50 GWh per year for about 500000 vehicles.

It is worth mentioning that Volvo and Northvolt announced in December a joint venture to develop power batteries, including a super factory for production and an R & D center, with a total investment of about 30 billion kroner (about 20.8 billion yuan).

The battery production joint venture between Volvo and Northvolt will become one of the largest battery manufacturers in Europe, and it is reported that Volvo and Northvolt have appointed former Tesla executive Adrian Clarke as head of the plant.

Of the partnership, Northvolt's CEO Peter Carlsson said, "he has Tesla's long experience and experience in how to build this kind of factory." Volvo said that Volvo's close cooperation with Northvolt and the establishment of the new plant will promote Volvo's electrification strategy to produce and sell pure electric vehicles by 2030. Hanken Samuelson, president and CEO of Volvo Automotive Group, said: "the battery partnership with Northvolt is the key to achieving our strategic goal of electrification, and we are committed to becoming a leader in high-end electric vehicles. By 2030 we will only sell pure electric cars. "

In March last year, Volvo announced the electrification transformation, that is, it will be fully electrified by 2025, with pure electric models accounting for 50 per cent of total sales, selling only pure electric vehicles by 2030 and all models will be sold online only by 2040.

According to public information, Volvo Automobile Group is a world-famous luxury car manufacturer, founded in 1927, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. Northvolt is a Swedish battery manufacturer and the first European company to develop lithium-ion batteries, and its largest shareholder is Volkswagen. So far, Northvolt has worked with a number of companies, including Volkswagen, BMW, Fluence, Scania, and won contracts worth more than $30 billion from customers such as BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo and Polar Star.

According to previous reports of auto industry concern, Volvo Group sold its Volvo car business to Ford Motor in 1999. Due to poor management and other reasons, Geely Holdings Group acquired Volvo car business from Ford Motor in 2010 and acquired the ownership of Volvo car brand. At present, China Geely holding Group is Volvo's largest shareholder. In October 2021, Volvo announced its official listing on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in Sweden. Regarding the listing, Volvo CEO Hanken Samuelson said, "the decision to advance IPO will help to enhance our brand and accelerate the transformation strategy of achieving full electrification, building a direct customer model and achieving a higher level of security. This will help the company achieve continuous growth in sales, revenue and profitability.

At present, Volvo is accelerating the electrification transformation, and it is understood that Volvo's second pure electric SUV C40 Recharge based on XC40 pure electric will be listed on the Chinese market and sold online in 2022.

The C40 Recharge, the first mass-produced pure electric SUV in Volvo's new strategic plan, was officially unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show on November 19 last year. The new car is expected to use a pure electric version of Volvo XC40, with a front and rear dual motor system with a maximum power of 300kW, a peak torque of 660Nm and a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 4.9s. In terms of batteries, the new car is equipped with 78kWh's battery pack, which takes eight hours to charge at 11 kW, while it takes only 40 minutes to charge to 80% at 150kW power, and the WLTP has a range of 420km.

In terms of vehicle sales, figures show that Volvo sold 705500 vehicles worldwide in 2019, up 9.8 per cent from a year earlier. Volvo sold 661700 cars worldwide in 2020 and accumulated 530600 vehicles in the first three quarters of 2021, up 17.6 per cent from a year earlier, including 132600 in China, up 17.1 per cent from a year earlier.

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