Scania to develop on-site battery laboratory and assembly plant in Södertälje
Scania is planning to invest more than one billion SEK in a battery assembly plant in Södertälje, Sweden. The first step is a 18,000-square metre facility and construction will start early in 2021 with the aim to be fully operational by 2023.
The company is also investing €15.5million in a new battery laboratory at its research and development facilities in Södertälje, Sweden.
Construction of the 1,000-square metre laboratory has commenced and building works will be completed by spring 2021 and will be fully operational by autumn 2021.
“This is a tangible manifestation of our determination to take a leading role in heavy vehicle electrification, which is needed to fulfil our commitment to science-based climate targets,” says Ruthger de Vries, head of production and logistics at Scania.
“Operating an on-site battery assembly plant is a prerequisite for large-scale production of electric vehicles and it also establishes Scania clearly as a part of the battery production value chain.”
The plant which will be built adjacent to the chassis assembly plant in Södertälje will assemble battery modules and packs from cells which will be delivered from Northvolt’s battery factory in Skellefteå, Sweden.
The assembled packs form battery systems tailored for Scania’s modular production at the Södertälje plant.
In 2015, Scania started series production of hybrid buses and in 2019 of its first full electric bus range.
This was recently followed by the introduction of Scania’s plug-in hybrid truck and the fully electric truck. Series production of the electric truck starts in 2021.