Volvo Cars and Northvolt hope to take their $3bn battery partnership to the US and Asia as the Swedish groups aim to get a head-start on rivals while traditional carmakers step up their moves into electric vehicles.

The newly listed premium carmaker and its start-up partner, which are about to open Europe’s first “gigafactory”, announced on Friday that they would set up a joint research and development centre in Gothenburg as part of a SKr30bn ($3.3bn) investment, which will include another factory in Europe to start production by 2026.

“If we can be faster working together than the competition, then we want to use that, not just in Europe but also in the Americas and Asia,” said Hakan Samuelsson, Volvo chief executive. “There’s nothing in our agreement that limits us to Europe. Europe is where we start but of course we make cars globally.”