A co-developed lithium-ion battery cell from Scania and Northvolt – designed for heavy electric vehicles – has demonstrated an excellent lifetime during validation testing. Following the tests, the battery solution is stated to be capable of powering electric commercial vehicles for 1,500,000km, equal to a truck’s entire service life.
The prismatic cell is produced at Northvolt’s Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden and has a capacity of 157Ah and a nominal voltage of 3.6V. The green battery is manufactured using fossil-free electricity generated by hydro power and wind power and its carbon footprint is estimated to be one-third of a comparative industry reference cell, the IVL 2019 lithium-ion NMC 111 cell.
Later this year, Scania plans to inaugurate a new battery factory in Södertälje, Sweden, where the company will assemble battery cells into battery packs for the start of production of heavy-duty electric trucks.
“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.”
“Today marks a milestone on the path toward a sustainable transport system,” added Christian Levin, CEO, Scania. “The future of heavy transport is electric, and to enable the shift and to continue delivering on our brand promise toward 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 1,500,000km-long lifetime for a heavy-duty Scania vehicle. The tests show that this requirement can not only be met, but also exceeded.”