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BMW teams with Northvolt on green battery production in Europe

BMW teams with Northvolt on green battery production in Europe

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By Christoph Hammerschmidt



In a joint technology consortium, BMW Group, Northvolt and Umicore plan to work closely together on the continued development of a complete and sustainable value chain for battery cells for electrified vehicles in Europe. The project is seeking to press ahead with the sustainable industrialisation of battery cells in Europe and the associated acquisition of skills, from cell chemistry and development through to production and ultimately recycling.

In view of the growing numbers of electrified vehicles, establishing a broad basis for procuring battery cells is becoming a matter of greater strategic significance for manufacturers. With Northvolt as a partner focused on sustainable production and the BMW Group in its capacity as a carmaker that is already developing its own battery cells today, this can be achieved to effect, the carmaker believes. Because battery cells contain essential resources and materials, feeding these back into the loop becomes more and more important as electric vehicles multiply in number. As Umicore is regarded as a global leader in the development and production of active materials for battery cells and resource recycling and the BMW Group boasts certain expertise in material and cell design, there are hopes for major achievements in this area too.


In order to accelerate the development of battery cells and make progress in terms of cell chemistry and cell design, the BMW Group’s planned battery cell centre of excellence will be inaugurated in summer 2019. Besides battery cell development, other key skills will be pooled there too, from the production of battery cell prototypes to build-to-print expertise.

This is important for the BMW Group as a way of endowing potential suppliers for cell production with the necessary skills to meet its own requirements. The carmaker is already investing in the entire value chain today and, by so doing, hopes to play a leading role when it comes to sustainability. Consequently, ensuring that raw materials come from environmentally and socially responsible sources, obliging cell suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint, using recycled materials, and creating battery concepts that can be serviced and easily recycled are already high priorities for the BMW Group, which intends to continue strengthening its capabilities and expanding its activities in this area.

“The sustainability approach of Northvolt makes it a highly appealing company for us, that was furthermore very receptive to our ideas,” comments Klaus Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Development. For this reason, the BMW Group and Northvolt have been collaborating for some time now as part of a strategic technology project. The collaboration will leverage the capabilities of Northvolt Labs, a scale-up line and research facility which will be used to test and industrialize battery cells before large-scale production, with the aim of developing cutting-edge green battery cells. The collaboration has been supported by BMW Group through an investment to enable the initial phase of the partnership.


Northvolt is driven by the ambition is to become one of the first fully circular industrial companies in the lithium-ion battery business. This is why all the electrical power for its future production of battery cells originates from renewable resources, the company claims. Another important consideration for Northvolt is local and responsible sourcing of the raw materials needed. ”BMW and Northvolt have a shared commitment to reduce CO2 emissions from transportation. As batteries are becoming a key strategic question for car manufacturers, this partnership does not only mark a key milestone for Northvolt, it also highlights the importance of sustainable battery cells in the coming wave of electrification”, said Peter Carlsson, Co-Founder and CEO, Northvolt.

Umicore is the partner responsible for active anode and cathode materials development and recycling in the technology alliance. This collaboration will enable innovative and highly efficient production technologies to be applied to the production of active materials based on recycled metals. In addition, this project covers smart battery pack disassembly, screening for reutilisation of the battery cells and feeding the recycled resources back into active material production. As electric mobility continues to expand, growing needs will not be limited to sustainable extraction of raw materials – recovering materials that have already been used will also become increasingly important in easing the burden on raw material production.

With this particular technology project, the BMW Group, Northvolt and Umicore are aiming at laying the basis for a sustainable value chain for automotive battery cells in Europe, from development and production right through to recycling.

In Europe, BMW has already been manufacturing modules with supplied battery cells before using these modules to build complete batteries for plug-in hybrids and battery-powered electric vehicles. With its battery cell production, Northvolt provides the final element needed for purely European production of complete batteries for electric mobility applications in future, resulting in a substantial reduction in carbon emissions at the same time.

Umicore has recently announced it will soon start building a cathode material manufacturing facility in Europe and already runs a recycling plant for lithium-ion batteries in Europe. Umicore is advancing the technology for recycling battery cells and returning the recycled resources to the material production cycle, thereby making a vital contribution to the future of sustainable mobility.

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