Volvo Cars has released a statement declaring that it plans to take full ownership of Novo Energy, a joint venture between Volvo and the Swedish battery company Northvolt.

Novo Energy was launched between the two Swedish companies in June 2021. The aim of this joint venture was to build the next generation of pure electric Volvo cars.

Volvo, which is majority owned by China’s Geely, says it plans to become a fully electric car maker by 2030. With Northvolt being a homegrown battery technology company specialising in lithium-ion technology, a collaboration between the two seemed an obvious one.

The pair said it would collaborate across R&D and battery production, for which a new 50 GWh gigafactory would be built in Gothenburg to enable the production of tailor-made batteries for the car maker.

The plan was for this 30bn krona (£2.2bn) factory to commence operations in 2025, employing up to 3,000 people and creating enough battery cells to power around 500,000 electric cars a year.

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