Battery group Northvolt announced Friday plans for a third “gigafactory” in Sweden as it seeks to ramp up production to meet demand from automakers shifting to electric cars. The battery group founded by two former Tesla employees said the facility located in Borlange, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northwest of Stockholm, will specialise in manufacturing cathodes for batteries destined for cars. “The gigafactory is expected to start the first part of its operations in late 2024 and will employ up to 1,000 people, utilising 100 percent clean energy from the region,” it said in a statement. The facility will eventually be able to produce more than 100 GWh of cathode material to be used to build battery cells at other Northvolt sites. Northvolt will refurbish a closed Stora Enso paper mill for the factory. Northvolt opened in December its first gigafactory in Sweden. One of Europe’s leading battery hopefuls, Northvolt has already secured $50 billion (44.6 billion euros) worth of orders from European car giants including Germany’s BMW and Volkswagen, and Sweden’s Volvo, with which it plans a separate European factory.