Swedish battery maker Northvolt will build a $5 billion lithium-ion battery factory in Québec, Canada, the company announced Thursday.
The factory, the company's first outside of Europe, marks the largest private investment in the Canadian province's history. It's set to include 60 gigawatt hours of battery production capacity, with adjacent facilities for cathode active material manufacturing and battery recycling.
Construction on the project is slated to begin by the end of the year and operations are expected to start in 2026. Northvolt will employ up to 3,000 people at the site.
The battery maker said it chose the 170-hectare site near Montreal after an "extensive review" of North American locations. The company will also house its North American headquarters in Montreal, which will be led by co-founder Paolo Cerruti.
"In the seven years since Northvolt was founded, we have pursued a singular goal – to establish a new, sustainable model for battery manufacturing," CEO and co-founder Peter Carlsson said in a statement. "Today, we are expanding our ambitions by bringing Northvolt to Canada.”
Founded in Stockholm in 2016, Northvolt currently delivers batteries from its factory in Skellefteå, Sweden and from its R&D and industrialization campus in Västerås, Sweden. The company employs more than 5,000 people across Sweden, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the U.S. and Canada.
Like many manufacturers, Northvolt was influenced by the Inflation Reduction Act. The law provides tax credits for electric vehicles with at least 50% of their components manufactured in North America.
"It definitely played a role to accelerate our decision to expand into North America," Cerutti told CNBC.
