Scania and Northvolt have unveiled their jointly developed battery cell for heavy electric trucks. In validation tests, the prismatic lithium-ion cell has demonstrated a service life equivalent to a truck’s whole lifetime, a fact which the partners consider “outstanding”.
In technical terms, the new cell with a capacity of 157 Ah can drive a truck over 1.5 million kilometres, Scania and Northvolt inform. The cell is the fruit of their development partnership agreed upon in January 2018. At the time, the Traton subsidiary Scania was already aiming for more robust, cost-efficient and sustainable battery cells for heavy-duty trucks and buses with battery-electric drive.
“When we started developing the battery cell, we aimed for high performance, low running costs and long life,” said Scania CEO Christian Levin. “We decided on a cell that should enable a service life of 1.5 million kilometres for a heavy Scania vehicle. The tests show that this requirement can not only be met but exceeded.”
In future, Northvolt will produce the new cell at the Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, Sweden. The facility serves to industrialise cells they develop at the Northvolt Labs in Västerås. Over the next few years, Northvolt aims to increase capacity at Ett to 60 GWh to supply clients ranging from Volkswagen and BMW or Volvo Cars to Scania.
Scania also plans to inaugurate its new battery assembly plant in Swedish Södertälje before the year’s end to assemble the Northvolt cells into battery packs for e-trucks. The plant is next to its chassis assembly.
Both companies are primarily on schedule towards production.
“At the outset of this partnership, Northvolt and Scania agreed to an ambitious timeline for developing a high-performance battery cell which would enable their plans for electrifying heavy transport,” said Nothvolt CEO and co-founder Peter Carlsson. “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.”
Apart from the prismatic cell format, expected service life, the capacity of 157 Ah and the nominal voltage of 3.6 volts, further details such as the external dimensions, cell chemistry, and energy density remain unknown.
As the production in northern Sweden uses fossil-free electricity generated by hydropower and wind power and Northvolt pays attention to the origin and emissions of raw materials in its supply chain, the cells are expected to have a carbon footprint “one-third that of a comparative industry reference”. Scania specifies a 2019 NMC-111 cell as a reference.
“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,” added Levin.
Keyword: Scania & Northvolt present dedicated e-truck battery cell