Following the example of truck manufacturer Volvo, car manufacturer Volvo Cars is going to look at the possibilities of producing cars from fossil-free steel.
That is steel that has been produced without the use of fossil fuels. Volvo Cars, like its former sister company, is entering into a partnership with steel manufacturer SSAB.
SSAB will make the necessary steel in a pilot plant in Luleå, northern Sweden, that runs on hydrogen. To this end, the steel manufacturer, which last year showed interest in Tata Steel’s acquisition in IJmuiden, is working together with iron ore company LKAB and energy company Vattenfall. Production should start on a commercial scale in 2026.
Making steel is still a very polluting activity. The blast furnaces run on coke, a type of coal. By using hydrogen generated with clean energy as fuel, this can be done much cleaner.
Volvo Cars want to reduce its CO2 footprint with green steel. The company also wants to switch to making purely electrically powered cars. Together with sister company Polestar, it previously announced that it also wanted to look at its own production processes and suppliers to achieve greening.
