Sweden to get Europe's biggest car battery factory

Start-up company Northvolt said Thursday it had picked its home country Sweden to build Europe's biggest factory for electric car batteries, rivalling Tesla's American "Gigafactory".

The company said it had selected Skelleftea, a coastal town in the country's industrial north-east, for the site which will employ up to 2,500 people.

Sweden's main nickel, cobalt, lithium and graphite deposits are nearby.

An associated research centre employing 300 to 400 people will be located in Vasteras, some 150 kilometres west of Stockholm and the original headquarters of Swedish-Swiss ABB, which has partnered up with Northvolt for the project.

"Europe is rapidly moving towards electrification," said Peter Carlsson, Northvolt's founder and CEO.