Valmet Automotive expects sales from its battery business for electric vehicles (EV) to reach or exceed the level of contract manufacturing of vehicles in just a few years. The growth will focus primarily on the EV Systems business line with its services for the development and manufacture of battery systems.

Electromobility is also playing an increasingly important role in the other three business lines: Engineering, Manufacturing and Roof & Kinematic Systems.

The Valmet Automotive Group sees battery systems as the main growth driver. Its stated goal is to establish the company as a leading company in the contract manufacturing of battery modules and systems as well as a tier 1 system supplier in the battery business. Valmet Automotive is already a tier 1 system supplier for convertible roofs and kinematic systems.

Since the founding of Jyrki Nurmimanaged EV Systems in 2018, the division was consistently developed and now employs around 300 people in Finland and currently around 50 people in Germany. The Business Line is responsible for the entire battery systems value chain, including development, production, testing and sales.

Series production of the first battery system developed by Valmet Automotive began in 2018 at the battery plant in Uusikaupunki. Just one year later, in 2019, the first plant for the mass production of battery systems in Salo, Finland, celebrated the start of production. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, production is currently at a record level in Salo.

Battery development is also bundled under the umbrella of the EV Systems business line. For this purpose, the former R&D team for batteries in Finland and the German battery engineering and test team were organizationally merged—a step that Valmet Automotive took in spring 2020 to drive the development of its EV business even more consistently.

The engineering team has locations in Finland and Germany.