'Lifetime' electric truck battery announced

Northvolt and Scania have unveiled a jointly-developed battery cell for heavy electric vehicles that is claimed to last the whole of a truck's life.

In validation tests, the lithium-ion cell has demonstrated an outstanding life resulting in the capacity to power trucks for 1.5 million kilometres.

Produced with fossil-free electricity in northern Sweden, the cell’s carbon footprint is approximately one-third that of a comparative industry reference.

In 2017, Scania and Northvolt joined forces to develop a world-leading battery cell for heavy commercial vehicles. That collaboration has come to fruition with the new battery cell being produced at Northvolt Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden.

Later this year, Scania will inaugurate a new battery factory the company's home town of Södertälje, Sweden, where battery cells will be assembled into battery packs for the start of production of heavy-duty electric trucks.

Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Northvolt said that at the outset of the 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.

"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,” he said.

Scania’s CEO Christian Levin said that the future of heavy transport is electric and 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," he said.

"We decided on a requirement for the cell to enable a 1.5 million kilometre lifetime for a heavy-duty Scania vehicle. The tests show that this requirement can not only be met, but also exceeded,” Mr Levin added.

As part of the company’s commitment to establishing a supply of sustainable cells, Northvolt Ett is powered by 100 per cent fossil-free electricity generated by hydro power and wind power. The estimated carbon footprint of the cell at full serial production is approximately one-third that of a comparative industry reference cell.

“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,” said Christian Levin.