Northvolt to build its third battery gigaplant in northern Germany

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Northvolt said on Tuesday it planned to build a lithium-ion battery plant with an annual capacity of 60 gigawatt hours (GWh) in Heide in northern Germany.

Northvolt, whose biggest owner is Volkswagen AG, said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Schleswig-Holstein state and the Heide region for the development of the factory, and that it expected it to produce its first batteries in late 2025.

Northvolt's first factory, in the northern Swedish town of Skelleftea, assembled its first battery cell in December.

The second, a joint venture with Volvo Cars, will be located in Gothenburg in western Sweden.

Northvolt had said it expected to build at least two more plants in Europe over the coming decade, and that it was looking at locating the next one in Germany.

"The new gigafactory increases Northvolt’s pipeline of battery manufacturing capacity under development to over 170 GWh," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Alongside battery production, Northvolt Drei will target an on-site battery recycling plant which will ensure efficient reuse of byproducts from the production process," it said.

Northvolt has to date secured more than $50 billion worth of contracts from customers including BMW, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.

(Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm; Editing by Matthew Lewis)