In support for electric aviation, a Northvolt electric plane battery has been announced
Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturer, has announced a new program centered on creating a Northvolt electric plane battery that’s light in weight and made of energy-dense lithium metal cells and modules to assist electric aviation. Development of the plane battery is already in progress thanks to Northvolt subsidiary Cuberg.
“With this new program, we will build certifiable battery systems enabling greatly enhanced aircraft performance,” said Cuberg’s Chief Executive Richard Wang in a statement.
In order to make electric flying safe and sustainable, the company has started testing the Northvolt electric plane battery system, which it said is light enough to be mounted on a plane.
Cuberg’s 20 Ah commercial-format lithium metal pouch cell, which has already started shipping to customers all over the world, served as the starting point for the development of scalable electric plane battery cells. The battery cells themselves, according to Cuberg, have an energy density of 405 Wh/kg.
Two former Tesla executives who had previously worked for Panasonic at the American automaker’s first Gigafactory in Nevada created Northvolt. The company’s primary objective was to introduce the “gigafactory” concept to Scandinavia.
Northvolt has provided money for research and development to create battery technologies, such as those employing 100% recycled nickel, manganese, and cobalt, in addition to increasing battery cell and module research across Europe. The company even announced a joint program to create environmentally friendly wood-based batteries using the lignin polymer, which is sourced from plants.
In order to provide energy solutions for electric planes, Northvolt claims they will combine their own Northvolt electric plane battery manufacturing knowledge with Cuberg’s lithium metal cell technology.