Northvolt announced that its new gigafactory in Västerås, northern Sweden, has assembled its first lithium-ion battery cell, making it the first European company to design and manufacture a battery on the continent.

The Swedish firm said that in the coming years, production capacity at Västerås will increase towards 60 GWh per year to fulfill over $30 billion worth of contracts Northvolt has secured from customers including BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.

“Marking a new chapter in European industrial history, the cell is the first to have been fully designed, developed and assembled at a gigafactory by a homegrown European battery company,” said Northvolt.

“The first cell of Northvolt Ett represents a milestone which Northvolt has been working towards since the gigafactory was announced in 2017.

“The cell is of a prismatic cell format and came off the cell assembly line on the 28th of December.

“Commissioning and upscaling of the factory will continue through into 2022, when the first commercial customer deliveries will be made.”

Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson said: “Today is a great milestone for Northvolt which the team has worked very hard to achieve.

“Of course, this first cell is only the beginning.

“Over the course of the coming years, we look forward to Northvolt Ett expanding its production capacity greatly to enable the European transition to clean energy.”