Hungary is soon going to be the world’s second-largest battery producer. There may be many people outraged by this as it will pose some drastic effects on the environment, but one cannot also shy away from the fact that there is a deadly battle for new battery factories, and the European Union not only provides crazy amounts of money in this regard but also, if required, a more flexible interpretation in terms of rules.
The end result goes on to confirm the fact that everyone is happy, be it the governments, battery manufacturers, or even the population as a whole.
The construction of battery factories across Hungary has been highlighted for quite some time in a negative light.
The investments in battery factories across the EU member states, on the other hand, happen to be mushrooming. And it turns out that the construction of one of the largest of these has already started.
The developer happens to be none other than Northvolt, which is registered in Sweden and happened to leave Tesla, the American electric vehicle manufacturer, back in 2016. In the summer of 2019, it went on to be reported that they had gone on to raise a billion dollars in capital, hence securing the financing for the construction of their giga battery factory based in Sweden called the Northvolt One. Notably, it has gone on to receive orders worth over 50 billion dollars.
When we talk of Northvolt, it has collected over 13 billion dollars in financing in order to build its factory network. In March 2024, it was announced that the construction of Northvolt’s gigabattery factory based in Germany had started. As per the plans, the battery factory will go on to have almost 3,000 people, and its yearly capacity will touch 60 gigawatt hours. Its functioning will begin in 2026, spread across over 110 hectares. The required electricity will come from wind energy.