Europe’s largest e-scooter operator, TIER, has partnered with the Swedish battery manufacturing startup, Northvolt, to equip its e-vehicles with what it claims to be ‘the world’s greenest batteries’.
Produced using 100% renewable energy, Northvolt’s innovative battery manufacturing also has an innovative method of recycling old batteries to create new ones to minimize their environmental impact.
The mining of raw materials for batteries and battery manufacturing processes account for the majority of greenhouse gases an e-scooter or an e-vehicle is responsible for over its lifetime. Responding to this, Northvolt’s approach seeks to minimize the carbon and environmental footprint of batteries at every opportunity.
At Northvolt, end-of-life batteries are treated as a valuable resource and recycled to provide raw materials for future batteries. Northvolt’s primary manufacturing facility, Northvolt Ett gigafactory, is powered by 100% fossil-free energy in northern Sweden. Meanwhile, Northvolt only sources materials from responsible suppliers, ensuring a supply and distribution chain that is free from conflict, child labor, and human rights abuse.
The pilot project, including the distribution of batteries for 5000 e-scooters, is planned to be rolled out by the end of 2021. The partnership with Northvolt follows TIER’s recent introduction of user-swappable batteries, which allow riders to charge batteries themselves at charging stations in exchange for free rides. This year TIER will set up 4,500 charging stations within local businesses across Europe, creating a green energy network which the company hopes can transform urban transport and help to electrify cities.
