Scania and Northvolt unveil 1.5 million km battery

One of the biggest battery-electric vehicle concerns is battery longevity. Scania and Northvolt have resolved this with a battery lasting a staggering 1,500,000km.

Sustainability frontrunners Scania and Northvolt have unveiled a jointly-developed battery cell for heavy electric vehicles. In validation tests, the lithium-ion cell has demonstrated an outstanding lifetime, with the capacity to power trucks for 1.5 million kilometres – equivalent to the lifetime of the truck itself. Produced in northern Sweden using fossil-free electricity, the cell’s carbon footprint is also two-thirds less than a comparative cell in the industry.  

Scania and Northvolt first joined forces in 2017 to develop and commercialise this world-leading battery cell for heavy commercial vehicles. Now the closely collaborative partnership has come to fruition with production of the cell at the Northvolt Ett gigafactory. In addition, later this year, Scania will inaugurate a new Swedish battery factory in Södertälje, where battery cells will be assembled into battery packs for the start of heavy-duty electric truck production. 

Premium requirement met and exceeded 

“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,” says 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.”

Scania’s CEO Christian Levin adds that this marks a significant milestone on the path towards a sustainable transport system. “The future of heavy transport is electric. To enable the shift and to continue delivering on our brand promise towards customers to be premium, Scania needs top-performing battery cells for our electric trucks,” he explains.

“As the development of the battery cell started, we targeted high performance, low operating costs, and long lifetime,” Levin continues. “We decided on a requirement for the cell to enable a 1.5 million kilometre-long lifetime for a heavy-duty Scania vehicle. The tests show that this requirement can not only be met, but exceeded.”