Northvolt and Scania unveil 1.5-million-kilometre electric truck battery

Big-name Swedish electric vehicle (EV) players Scania and Northvolt have unveiled a jointly developed a battery cell for use in heavy EVs which they say boasts a lifetime of 1.5 million kilometres – equivalent to a truck’s entire lifespan.

Scania a leading commercial vehicle specialist and Northvolt battery developer, have been working to develop and commercialise a world-leading battery cell for heavy commercial vehicles since 2017.

The new lithium-ion battery has already demonstrated in testing the capacity to power trucks for 1.5 million kilometres and is produced using fossil fuel-free electricity at the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden which is powered by 100% renewable hydro and wind power.

With a capacity of 177Ah and a nominal voltage of 3.6V the prismatic cell boasts a carbon footprint approximately one-third that of a comparative industry reference.

“At the outset of this partnership, Northvolt and Scania agreed to an ambitious timeline for the development of a high-performance battery cell which would enable their plans for electrifying heavy transport,” said Peter Carlsson, CEO and co-founder of Northvolt.

“To have proceeded through extensive development and validation phases, and now be delivering cells from Northvolt Ett which exceed our initial expectations in terms of performance is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved.”

To complement production at Northvolt Ett, Scania has announced plans to inaugurate a new battery factory in Södertälje, Sweden which will assemble the cells into battery packs ahead of production of heavy-duty electric trucks.

“Today marks a milestone on the path towards a sustainable transport system,” said Christian Levin, Scania CEO.

“The future of heavy transport is electric, and to enable the shift and to continue delivering on our brand promise towards customers to be premium, Scania needs top-performing battery cells for our electric trucks.

“As the development of the battery cell started, we targeted high performance, low operating costs and long lifetime. We decided on a requirement for the cell to enable a 1.5 million kilometres long lifetime for a heavy-duty Scania vehicle. The tests show that this requirement can not only be met, but also exceeded.

“Northvolt’s mission to build the world’s greenest batteries matches Scania’s purpose to drive the shift towards sustainable transport perfectly. I’m truly looking forward to putting the final puzzle pieces together ahead of the take-off of premium electric vehicles later this year.”