Before the market was ready – the journey towards Sweden’s electrification

At the end of 2016, Henrik Svenningstorp was working at CEVT (China Euro Vehicle Technology). There, he had been given a clear assignment: develop electric cars. The only problem was that there was nowhere to test them.

“The major manufacturers, such as Volvo, had their own test facilities, of course. But having every player build separate infrastructures for testing and verification is not a particularly efficient solution. The needs that had rapidly emerged around electric cars were far greater than any single actor could meet,” says Henrik Svenningstorp, who today is Head of Strategic Research and Business Development in energy and electrification at RISE.

“We saw a gap in the system”

Soon, discussions began with Mikael Damberg, then Minister for Enterprise and Innovation. Someone raised the idea that the state should support Swedish industry in the electrification transition – not by funding individual companies’ test environments, but by building a shared infrastructure that everyone could use. That idea would prove to take flight.

In May 2017, Henrik Svenningstorp moved over to RISE, where he was also given a clear assignment: find out what such a laboratory would cost, where it should be located and what it needed to contain.

The answers to the three questions came relatively quickly. The cost: roughly one billion Swedish kronor. The location: Gothenburg and Nykvarn, at the heart of Sweden’s automotive cluster. The contents: that would have to be worked out along the way.

“Everyone in the industry is in the same boat here, and what they need is an infrastructure that can deliver independent, verified results from the tests required to make the transition happen. Now it’s a matter of meeting this need quickly,” says Henrik Svenningstorp.

In January 2018, Martin Ljungberg joined the project as Chief Financial Officer. Together, and in close dialogue with AB Volvo, Volvo Cars, Scania and Chalmers University of Technology, they began shaping what would later become SEEL – modelled on the AstaZero proving ground: a test and demonstration centre jointly owned by RISE and Chalmers, open to the entire industry.

A process no one had undertaken before

In the summer of 2018, the first official decision was made. The Minister for Enterprise travelled to Gothenburg, the President of Chalmers and the Chair of Gothenburg’s City Executive Board were in attendance, plaques were signed and the newspapers reported on it. The road ahead looked straight.

It wasn’t.

It turned out that the decision text contained a subordinate clause stipulating that the investment had to be compatible with EU competition law. That clause would take another eighteen months to resolve.

“We were breaking new ground with this application process. We had to prove to the EU that the support we were requesting was absolutely necessary and no more than what was required – while at the other end, the automotive industry wanted concrete price lists for future testing services, before we even knew where we would build the facilities,” says Martin Ljungberg.

After a few more rounds through the bureaucratic processes of both the EU and the Swedish Energy Agency, all the permits were finally in place. By then, it was spring 2020.

Construction in a perfect storm

What followed was a construction project in the midst of what was perhaps history’s least favourable climate for major investments.

The Covid pandemic closed borders and hit supply chains. Construction cost indices soared. The war in Ukraine drove up steel prices. A ship got stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking global freight routes. The semiconductor shortage forced car factories to shut down their production lines. And timber prices in Sweden shot up as a result of a spruce bark beetle infestation in Canada.

On top of all this, interest rates went from historically low levels to rising rapidly – making all financing more expensive.

“Taken together, it was a situation that perhaps occurs once in a thirty-year cycle,” says Martin Ljungberg. “Had this been a private initiative with ordinary risk-taking, someone would probably have put a spanner in the works and said: I’m out.”

This, he argues, is really the core of the entire argument for why SEEL was financed with public funds:

“Building facilities of this kind comes with such substantial risk that it’s difficult to make happen on the market’s own terms. That was what we argued before the EU. The point of the investment was to bring about a change that would not have happened otherwise – to push Sweden forward in electrification without being dependent on individual commercial actors.”

Despite everything, and with a series of creative solutions along the way, the facilities in Säve and Nykvarn were built on time and on budget. What’s more, the battery safety laboratory in Borås grew during the process: it ended up both bigger and better than originally planned.

SEEL is not a single building. It consists of several facilities, each with its own specialism:

A neutral arena in an industry where nothing stands still

SEEL is not a company that competes with its customers. It is an independent platform – and that is precisely the point.

In an industry where automotive giants are normally competitors, they can meet at SEEL’s facilities and test under the same roof, with results that are independently verified and methodologically reliable. This creates a kind of trust that cannot be bought: no one owns the arena, and therefore everyone can trust what happens on it.

The original guarantee customers – Volvo Cars, AB Volvo, Scania (now part of Traton) and CEVT (today Zeekr, within Geely) – all remain and form the backbone of the customer base, in Säve and Nykvarn as well as at the battery safety laboratory in Borås. The fact that they stayed on board the whole way, even though the original plan was for the facilities to be completed as early as 2020, was crucial.

But SEEL’s customers are not just the industry giants. Heart Aerospace, which is developing an electric aircraft for short-haul flights, has used the facilities to test its powertrains. So has Elinor, the Norwegian battery manufacturer.

“I am very impressed by how far SEEL has come in this short time. To meet customers’ needs going forward, we see great potential in being dynamic and adaptable to get the most out of the exchange between industry and academia – and there, SEEL becomes an important arena,” says Johan Karlsson, Senior Section Head E-propulsion and Drivetrain Test Operation R&D, Traton Group.

Always peering around the corner

There are test facilities for electrified vehicles in several places across Europe. But SEEL’s combination of research, testing and safety-critical testing under one umbrella is described as unique even from a European perspective.

“RISE contributes the scientific expertise and the independence. Chalmers brings the research capacity and the network into academia. Industry brings the knowledge of what needs to be tested and why. It was that model – with RISE as an independent unifying force – that made the whole construction possible,” says Henrik Svenningstorp.

An important part of that work is about actually understanding where the technology was heading. Henrik explains that during the build-up phase, he spent considerable time asking industry partners about their technical plans: what type of batteries they would be using in five to seven years, how fast the electric motors would spin, what current levels they would need to handle.

“It went straight into their strategic plans, and sometimes they didn’t know the answer themselves. But that was what formed the basis of our technical specifications.”

Because in today’s pace of technological development, you have to look ahead and stay quick on your feet. One example is when the SEEL team, midway through the construction process, changed the specifications and doubled the current capacity of the battery testing equipment. It proved to be the right decision.

“Had we not done that, we would have had to close half the facility. The first battery cells that can actually handle the current levels we designed for have only just started arriving at our customers,” says Henrik Svenningstorp.

Today (2026, editor’s note), roughly 80 per cent of the equipment purchased is judged to be relevant to the needs that actually emerged – a result Martin Ljungberg describes as strong given all the uncertainties during the planning period.

“The technology is relevant to our customers and we’re getting very good feedback. That’s hugely rewarding,” he says.

Another part of SEEL’s remit is to conduct research of its own. Martin GH Gustavsson, Head of Research at SEEL, stresses that this is an important element – but not a goal in itself.

“I see the research as a means of reaching the goal. The knowledge we build up in the research projects, we bring back into the operation. Methodology development is the higher purpose – ensuring we can always offer the Swedish and European automotive industry the best possible service,” says Martin GH Gustavsson.

2024 and beyond – the platform is up and running

Since 2024, the facilities have been receiving customers in full operation. Tests that previously had to be carried out abroad, or in inadequate environments, can now be performed in Sweden with world-class technical infrastructure and expertise directly linked to research.

Leading that work today is Victoria Woyland, CEO of SEEL since 2025. She describes a landscape that has changed dramatically since the facilities were first planned: competition from China, Northvolt’s bankruptcy, a massive expansion of test infrastructure across Europe and a shifting geopolitical situation. Yet she is clear about what makes SEEL unique amid this turbulence.

“What almost all our customers have in common is that they are trying to solve tomorrow’s problems today. They need a place where they can test, challenge and develop their solutions before going to market. And that’s where we come in,” says Victoria Woyland.

SEEL is today run as a limited company, owned by RISE and the Chalmers Foundation, and is measured like any commercial business. But alongside the commercial targets, there is a broader mission written into the terms of the state support: to be an open hub for collaboration, accessible to the whole of Europe, and to drive innovation in electrification forward.

When Victoria looks ahead, it is not about building the biggest – but about being relevant when it really matters.

“We’re no longer just talking about a battery or a vehicle. Today, we’re talking about entire systems where vehicles, charging, energy storage and power grids have to work together. That’s where I believe SEEL has a very exciting role to play going forward – helping customers understand and verify complete systems, not just individual components,” she says.

The electrification journey is far from over. Battery technology continues to evolve. Requirements on vehicles are tightening. New applications constantly raise new questions that demand answers which don’t yet exist.

And that is exactly why SEEL was built.