Nortvolt, a Swedish company founded by two former TESLA employees recently secured $1,6 billion to finance the construction of two Gigafactories, battery manufacturing plants.

The locations for Northvolt One is Skellefteå, Sweden, and Northvolt Two in Salzgitter, Germany. A consortium of companies, financial institutions, and governments, including Volkswagen, BMW,  UniCredit Bank Austria, and the German government, wants to establish an alternative for Asian dominated battery manufacturing, namely Samsung SDI and CATL.

Northvolt aims for the greenest Batteries in the World

The German Außenwirtschaftsförderung des Bundes, funding for foreign ventures in the interest of the country, pitched in $525 million.

Additional investments will flow into Northvolt Labs in Västerås, Sweden, a research and battery recycling facility.

Nortvolt: Our mission is to build the greenest battery in the world with a minimal carbon footprint and the highest ambitions for recycling to enable the European transition to renewable energy.

Other investors include, APG, BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, Danica Pension, IMI – Intesa Sanpaolo, ING, KfW IPEX-Bank, PFA Pension, SEB, Siemens Bank, SMBC, Société Générale, Swedbank and UniCredit, the European Investment Bank, Nordic Investment Bank, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM).

Meanwhile, another Volkswagen backed battery project, QuantumScape a decade old battery research pitch, may finally have more answers when it comes to critical Lithium-ion shortcomings, eventually helps to extend battery potentials significantly.

QuantumScape currently plots the launch at the stock markets.