Creating a sustainable life cycle for batteries
Sven Sjöberg, Senior Manager High Voltage and Energy Storage Systems at CEVTIn an effort to join forces to make Sweden one of the first fossil free countries, CEVT has been part in creating a strategy for the life cycle of batteries. In this Q&A Sven Sjöberg, Senior Manager High Voltage and Energy Storage Systems at CEVT, talks about our contribution in this and why this is important.
The Swedish organization Fossilfritt Sverige “Fossil free Sweden” started in 2015 in conjunction with the UN Paris agreement as an initiative by the Swedish government. It gathers companies, regions and organizations that all collectively are working to make Sweden one of the worlds first fossil free countries.
Sven Sjöberg, Senior Manager High Voltage and Energy Storage Systems at CEVT, tells us more:
Why a strategy for batteries?
The strategy for batteries is the Swedish contribution to the European battery-alliance initiative in EU. The goal for the Swedish strategy is to be the absolute best in terms of a sustainable and fossil free production of batteries- for the entire life cycle, from raw material to the finished product and back to raw material again. The EU battery alliance has the aim that the EU will be a self-sufficient provider of EV batteries. This market has been estimated to reach a turn-over of 250 Billion Euro per annum in 2025.
What is our contribution in this?
CEVT has been part of reference groups where we have discussed and put forth ideas. For instance, we suggested to put efforts towards battery steering systems and pilot factories to teach us more about battery pack production. We were then asked to help make a prioritized list amongst the suggestions and ended up with a lineup. For example; creating system demonstrators, i.e. concrete examples of executions such as electrification in cities, sustainable mines or to use Business Sweden to sell Swedish battery competence abroad.
How will the public experience the Swedish battery strategy when it is implemented in the future?
If all goes according to plan there will be environmentally friendly raw material production for batteries in Sweden including battery recycling. There will also be thousands of battery experts and workers in battery factories, as a result of an ambitious education effort. Before that we will see the industry and the universities starting pilot plants and demonstrators together. Sweden will eventually be considered as an important nation in sustainable battery production.
Who else has been involved?
The Swedish government gave this task to Fossilfritt Sverige and InnoEnergy. They in turn involved about 50 other players from everything from the regions, the mining industry to the automotive industry and academia like VCC, AB Volvo, Chalmers, Skellefteå kommun, Uppsala University and Northvolt to name a few.
What happens now?
The Swedish government and other involved parties should now execute and finance the prioritized suggestions together. For instance, the effort towards competence, sustainable raw material extraction, the infrastructure for charging and to stimulate battery related start-ups close to our industry.
About Zeekr Technology Europe AB
CEVT is an innovation and development center for future technologies of the Geely Group with the purpose of being at the forefront of new developments in mobility The whole industry is now undergoing a transformation with new ways of thinking about the car as a product. CEVT is a fast growing, fast moving and exciting company where no day is like the other – where the challenges of tomorrow are on our working table today. CEVT consists of some 2000 people with offices in Gothenburg and Trollhättan in Sweden and currently works on projects for the car brands Volvo Cars, Geely Auto and Lynk & Co. CEVT is a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. For more information about CEVT, go to www.cevt.se
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